American hijacker, back from Cuba, now faces US justice

An American Black Panther who hijacked a plane from the United States to Cuba in 1984 returned to his home country Wednesday and was arrested, the Justice Department said. William Potts, now 56, has a life story that reads like something on the big screen, spent almost three decades in Cuba, while American prosecutors sought to bring him to justice in the United States. In Cuba, Potts reportedly thought he would be warmly welcomed and trained as a revolutionary; instead he was tried, convicted and served 15 years in jail where he also converted to Islam. The American, also known as William Freeman, had been charged with hijacking in the United States for the crime carried out March 27, 1984. Prosecutors said in their indictment that on that flight, which set out nearly 30 years ago from New York, Potts presented himself as Lieutenant Spartacus. In a note handed to flight attendants, he called for his brothers and sisters in South Africa to be freed. Potts also criticized US policy toward Nicaragua's Sandinistas at the time of the hijacking, and sought a ransom of five million dollars, US prosecutors said in a document. He was arrested Wednesday at Miami's bustling international airport, and was to appear before a federal judge here and could face up to 20 years in prison in the United States, prosecutors said. So why would Potts return to the United States, even as a disillusioned revolutionary who has served years in tough Cuban prisons? Potts, who had two daughters with a Cuban wife, said he refused earlier Cuban offers to send him back to America. But now he is desperate to see his daughters who left Cuba for the United States, he told CNN. He told the network he was unable to negotiate a plea deal with US authorities. He said he hopes any prison sentence he faces in the United States will be reduced by the time he has already served in Cuba, but understands that there are no guarantees. Potts also said that when he sent his daughters to live in the United States and "watched their plane take off, he said he was filled with regret for having hijacked a plane," the cable television network said. US and Cuba, which do not have full diplomatic relations, do not routinely cooperate as they did in his return to US shores. Potts was issued a one-use passport and taken off a US no-fly list, CNN reported. There are other Americans still on the lam in Cuba, most prominently Joanne Chesimard -- also known under the alias Assata Shakur -- one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists. Chesimard, a New Yorker who like Potts is a former Black Panther, is wanted for the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. A legend in US hip-hop culture, she fled an American prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba with political asylum since 1984.