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U.S authorities are trying to extradite George Wright, now 68, to serve the remainder of his 15 to 30 year sentence for the 1962 murder of war hero and father of two Walter Paterson in Wall, NJ.
ack in 1970 he escaped from prison and went on to hijack a plane with fellow members of the Black Liberation Army, including his children securing a whopping $1million ransom for the lives of the 86 passengers and crew on board as we reported here.
It was the biggest amount of money ever paid at the time, but after they escaped to Algeria, they never got to enjoy their spoils and it was handed
back to the US by the country's authorities.
Wright meanwhile was granted political asylum by the west African country Guinea-Bissau in 1980s and he became a Portuguese citizen, called Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos, in 1991 after marrying a Portuguese woman.
His lawyer Manuel Luis Ferreira says that he has the right to serve the time in Portugal because he has Portuguese citizenship based on his new identity.
He said: "As a Portuguese citizen, if he has to answer to any authority or if he has to serve any sentence, it has to be to Portuguese authorities and in Portuguese territory."
Official documents belonging to Wright and provided to the AP show Portugal accepted his new identity papers when it granted him citizenship.
Wright has a Portuguese passport, issued in 2007, and other documents including a Portuguese social security number, driving license and voter registration card.
"There's no doubt whatsoever about his nationality," Ferreira said, adding that Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos "is now his real name."
Ferreira is due to present his written arguments to the judge on Thursday after an initial hearing last Tuesday when Wright opposed his extradition.
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