(18 Nov 2011)
Lisbon – 17 November, 2011
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of fugitive George Wright and his wife Maria do Rosario, walking and entering building
2. Wright and lawyers arriving at news conference
3. SOUNDBITE: (Portuguese) George Wright, fugitive:
“I was waiting, and I’m glad with the Portuguese justice because they took a decision – which I think is the correct one.”
4. Mid lawyer Manuel Ferreira speaking to Wright
5. Close up, cameraman
6. SOUNDBITE: (Portuguese) George Wright, fugitive:
“I also made a mistake in life – as anyone else, but in that case I did it – but that’s the past, I’m not that person anymore. The evidence of that is during 41 years I had not had problems with any police and I’m here, it’s the evidence because I did something I should not do, and my life changed radically.”
7. Various of Wright and lawyers
8. SOUNDBITE (English) George Wright, fugitive:
“Because I did not kill anyone, and in America – as Doctor Ferreira has said – the law is�.. accompanied, I was accompanying someone that committed a crime, and they sentenced me on that particular aspect.”
9. Mid of Wright and lawyers
10. Various of Wright kissing his wife, his son and his daughter
11. Various Wright and his family leaving
Almocageme – 28 October 2011
12. Various of Wright and his wife, Maria do Rosario Valente in kitchen
Lisbon – 29 September, 2011
13. Various of tribunal building
STORYLINE:
A Portuguese court on Thursday denied a US request for the extradition of a captured American fugitive who spent 41 years on the run in a journey that took him across three continents.
On the way George Wright, now 68, hijacked a jet from America to Algeria in 1972.
Wright told reporters in Lisbon that he is “very happy” with the decision. He claimed his extradition to serve the rest of a sentence for a fatal New Jersey gas station robbery in 1962 was not justified because accomplices fired the shots that killed the owner.
Wright also admitted the plane hijacking and said he committed it as a militant member of the Black Liberation Army but said: “I’m not that person anymore.”
American authorities were seeking his return to serve the rest of his 15- to 30-year jail sentence. He was captured in Portugal in September after a fingerprint provided by US authorities was matched to his in a national database the country maintains for all citizens and legal residents.
Wright’s lawyer, Manuel Luis Ferreira, told The Associated Press that the judge accepted his arguments that Wright is now Portuguese and that the statute of limitations on the killing had expired.
He expects American authorities will appeal the decision, but the judge immediately released Wright from house arrest.
The US Justice Department said it was “extremely disappointed” with the outcome, calling Wright “a convicted murderer guilty of an extremely serious crime which falls squarely within the terms of our bilateral extradition treaty with Portugal”.
Details of the judge’s decision were not available because Portuguese court proceedings for extraditions are conducted in secrecy with no public access to the proceedings, filings or decisions.
Wright spent seven years in a US prison for the New Jersey murder before escaping in 1970, and was on the run for 41 years until his arrest.
Authorities say Wright and three associates had already committed multiple armed robberies in 1962, when Walter Patterson, a decorated World War II veteran and father of two, was shot dead in his gas station in Wall, New Jersey.
The identity from Guinea-Bissau was granted after the country gave Wright political asylum in the 1980s.

Find out more about AP Archive:
Twitter:
Facebook: ​​
Instagram:

You can license this story through AP Archive:

source