A United States fugitive who has been on the run from the American authorities for 40 years will not be extradited back to his country of origin.
In a tale straight out of an American adventure movie, George Wright had been arrested on September 25 by the Portuguese authorities to serve the remainder of a 15-30 year prison sentence for a New Jersey state murder conviction.
In November 1962, Wright and three associates were involved in the commission of multiple armed robberies, during one of which a World War II veteran and Bronze Star recipient was killed at a petrol station holdup.
But in 1970 Wright escaped from Bayside Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, joined the Black Liberation Army in Detroit, hijacked Delta flight 841 en-route from Detroit to Miami with five accomplices (with children) and demanded a http://www. million ransom for the passengers.
They then forced the plane to fly to Boston and then had the plane fly to Algeria where Wright and his accomplices sought political asylum. The plane and most of the money was eventually returned.
Wright evaded capture after his accomplices were caught in Paris and fled on to Guinea Bissau, where he learnt Portuguese and later ended up in Lisbon where he has evaded justice ever since.
Extradition was refused by a Lisbon court because Wright was now a Portuguese citizen and that the time limit for his detention had expired.
A statement issued via the United States Embassy in Lisbon stated that the United States was “extremely disappointed in the Court of Appeals decision”.
“George Wright is a convicted murderer guilty of an extremely serious crime which falls squarely within the terms of our bilateral extradition treaty with Portugal,” it said.
