LONDON (AFP) — An Afghan man involved in a hijacking eight years ago was arrested after being found working as a cleaner for British Airways near Heathrow Airport, officials and a press report said Friday.
Nazamuddin Mohammidy, 34, was among nine Afghans who threatened to blow up a Boeing 727 during a four-day stand-off with police at London Stansted Airport in 2000.
This week he appeared in court after police pulled his car over, on suspicion of being a bogus taxi driver, only to discover his identity and that he had a security pass as a cleaner for British Airways, said The Sun newspaper.
"He had a British Airways pass on him. It was discovered he was in breach of bail and he was arrested. Then it emerged he was one of the Stansted hijackers," a source told the daily.
"There's got to be something seriously wrong with a country that lets a hijacker work at an airport. It's shocking."
According to the tabloid, Mohammidy lives near Heathrow in west London and has spent months employed by a local company which has a contract to clean a British Airways training centre.
A British Airways spokesman said Mohammidy did not work inside the airport and did not have an airside pass.
"We have been helping the police with their inquiries into a man who is employed by our cleaning contractors. He does not work at the airport and does not hold an airside pass.
"He works at one of our properties about a mile away," he said.
London's Metropolitan Police confirmed the man was to appear in court again next Monday.
"A man has been arrested at Heathrow and is going to appear in court. he has been charged with bodily assault and was in breach of bail," a spokesman told AFP.
Mohammidy is accused of beating up his former landlord, according to The Sun tabloid, which quoting him as saying: "I have nothing to say."
The 2000 hijacking made headlines around the world, when the nine Afghans forced the aicraft's pilot to land at Stansted, threatening to blow up its 173 passengers and crew unless granted political asylum.
They eventually surrendered to police and crack special forces troops after a tense 70-hour siege.
The hijackers were convicted at London's Old Bailey central criminal court, but their convictions were controversially quashed in 2003, citing the "duress" of fleeing the Taliban, and they were granted the right to stay in Britain.
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