Panamanian authorities announced Sunday the arrest in Venezuela of the suspected mastermind behind a 1994 plane bombing that killed 21 people, mostly Jewish, in an attack attributed to Hezbollah.
The aircraft, Alas Chiricanas Flight 901, exploded shortly after takeoff from an airport in Panama’s Colón province on the night of July 19, 1994. All passengers — most of them members of Panama’s Jewish community — were killed, including three Americans. It remains the deadliest attack in Panama’s history.
According to a statement by Panamanian police, Interpol’s Caracas office confirmed to its Panamanian counterpart the arrest of Ali Zaki Hage Jalil, a Venezuelan national suspected of orchestrating the bombing.
“The arrest took place on November 6 on Margarita Island, in Venezuela’s Nueva Esparta state,” police said, adding that extradition procedures are underway.
Panama’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it had initiated “diplomatic and judicial measures” to ensure the suspect is brought before Panamanian justice.
The ministry also expressed concern over “the presence and residence with impunity of an individual in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” allegedly linked to the terrorist attack on Flight 901.
In October 2024, the United States offered a $5 million reward for information on the bombing, describing it as a likely suicide operation by Hezbollah.
Panama’s investigation was reopened in 2018, after then-President Juan Carlos Varela visited Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him that Israeli intelligence had determined the crash was “a terrorist attack” carried out by Hezbollah.
AFP
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