ANKARA - One of the two men who hijacked a Turkish plane with more than 140 people on board this weekend before surrendering hours later had contact with an Al-Qaeda figure, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Citing police sources, the report said that Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, a 33-year-old Egyptian passport-holder of Palestinian origin, had once stayed in the same prison with an Al-Qaeda figure serving a life sentence in Saudi Arabia.
Turkish officials had earlier said that Talikh held a Syrian passport but was believed to have Palestinian roots. The plane's passenger manifest gave his age as 25.
The Anatolia agency said that Talikh and his accomplice, Turkish national Mehmet Resat Ozlu, commandeered the plane and tried to divert it to Iran as part of their plan to go to Afghanistan and join Al-Qaeda.
The pair met a year ago in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and shared a flat for the past month.
Turkish newspapers described Ozlu as the sixth of 12 children of a farmer living in a small village in Sanliurfa province in Turkey.
He went to the TRNC to study at university but failed his classes, the reports said.
Anatolia said the two men were expected to be brought before a judge on Wednesday to be formally charged.
Talikh and Ozlu hijacked the plane, operated by private Turkish carrier, Atlas Jet, on Saturday during a flight from Ercan airport in the TRNC to Istanbul.
They told the passengers that they were members of Al-Qaeda and that they were armed with a bomb, but Turkish Cypriot police said Sunday in a statement, carried by Anatolia, that it turned out to be a piece of modelling clay.
Media reports said the hijackers had stuck pieces of wire to it to make it look realistic.
Passengers said the two men told them the hijacking was aimed at protesting the policies of the United States and demanded that the plane to be diverted to Tehran or Syria.
The pilots said they had to refuel and landed at the airport of the Mediterranean resort of Antalya in Turkey.
Shortly afterwards, the pilots jumped out of the cockpit window and most of the passengers escaped from the rear door as the hijackers were releasing women and children through the front exit.
A few passengers and crew remained hostage for several hours before the hijackers were persuaded to release them and turn themselves in.
Atlas Jet said the plane was carrying a total of 136 passengers and six crew, but officials later said there were 140 passengers, including eight children, and five crew.
The incident was the second hijacking involving a Turkish plane this year.
In April, a 39-year-old man threatened to blow up a passenger plane on a domestic flight from the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir to Istanbul with 180 people on board, and forced it to land in Ankara.
He surrendered to police shortly and was found to be unarmed.
08/19/2007 18:58 GMT