A court in Spain's Canary Islands has sentenced a Mauritanian man to 17 years in prison for hijacking a plane in February 2007, dpa quoted judicial sources as saying today. The man hijacked a Boeing 737 en route from the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria island, threatening the crew with two pistols. He demanded that the pilot divert the Air Mauritanie plane to Paris, where he intended to seek asylum. The pilot answered that he did not have enough fuel to fly to Paris and landed in Las Palmas while some of the passengers on board overpowered the hijacker. The court in Las Palmas sentenced the man to 15 years for the hijacking and two years for illegal possession of weapons. He was also ordered to pay nearly 200,000 euros (270,000 dollars) in damages to Air Mauritanie.
