CALLING ARAFAT

• Share

A U.S. federal judge has ordered PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to give a deposition in a lawsuit concerning the 1985 slaying of an American aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton gave Arafat until January 12 to give his deposition, and said the PLO could be held liable if he does not cooperate in the suit. A New Jersey travel agency filed the lawsuit, which blames a PLO faction for the 3-day hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound elderly man, whom terrorists threw into the sea off Egypt. PLO lawyers said that an Arafat deposition was impossible because of "constant demands" on his time during the ongoing peace process, and denied responsibility for the faction that carried out the attack.