Airline bomber to be freed from US prison

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Jordanian-born Palestinian man convicted of the 1982 bombing of a Pan Am flight traveling to Hawaii from Japan is set to be released from United States federal prison Wednesday.

Mohammed Rashed has been sitting behind bars for more than two decades after leaving a bomb under a jetliner seat that exploded on Pan Am Flight 830 from Tokyo to Honolulu on Aug 11, 1982, killing a Japanese teenager and injuring at least 15 others.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd noted that Rashed, 63, has served about 23 years in prison, including time served in Greek and US jails, over the bomb plot.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which published his release date, said he is currently held at the Federal Correctional Institution, McKean, a medium-security jail in western Pennsylvania.