A Lebanese journalist detained on suspicion he participated in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 is back home in Beirut after authorities determined they had the wrong man.
Mohamed Saleh, 65, was held for five days after being detained on the island of Mykonos while on a vacation cruise — misidentified during a security check as one of three terrorists who killed a US Navy sailor and detained 146 others for 17 horrific days in June 1985.
The arrest last week had brought hope to the family of Navy diver Robert Stethem, 23, who was viciously beaten and shot dead by the hijackers before his body was thrown onto the tarmac at a Beirut airport.
Authorities said the three men had ties to Hezbollah.
Greek police said in a statement this week that Saleh’s passport came up on a European police computer system as one of the men sought in Germany over the 34-year-old hijacking.
But authorities determined that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Saleh told reporters when he arrived in Beirut that he was held by a “country that I never visited in my life,” referring to Germany.
“I am a retired man who was going to enjoy a vacation and received what I don’t wish on anyone,” he said.
With Post wires