JEDDAH/KHARTOUM, 17 October — Saudi security agents are expected to arrive in Khartoum to join the investigation into the foiled attempt by a Saudi national to hijack a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane on Tuesday, Saudi ambassador to Sudan said yesterday.

Speaking to Arab News, Abdullah Al-Harithy said the Saudi team will bring Adel Nasir Ahmed Faraj, 35, the alleged hijacker, to the Kingdom along with them to complete their investigation.

A Sudanese spokesman said Faraj, who tried to hijack the plane soon after it took off from Khartoum on its way to Jeddah, was "mentally unstable."

"It transpired from the interrogation that there was no political motive behind the hijack attempt and that Faraj was not a member of any political or Islamic organization," Maj. Gen. Hussein Osman said.

During the interrogation, which lasted less than 24 hours, Faraj confessed to the crime. He will immediately be taken to court to stand trial on charges of hijacking, Osman said.

Three Sudanese nationals have also been arrested in connection with the case. They include a merchant in an Omdurman market who sold the pistol used in the attempt, a middleman and a Khartoum airport employee who allegedly helped Faraj to evade security and smuggle the pistol onto the plane.

Osman said the pair confessed to their roles in the crime, though the merchant said he did not know what the accused would use the pistol for, and the airport employee said the accused told him he made the purchase in Sudan to save money.

Both the merchant and the airport employee will stand trial in Sudan because they are Sudanese, the spokesman said.

Al-Harithy did not rule out the connivance of one of the Khartoum airport employee with the hijacker, by helping him to take the gun with him to the plane. However, he denied reports that there was more than one hijacker on the plane.

The Sudanese spokesman said the hijacker, whom he described as "apparently of an unstable mind", did not clearly identify the motive of his attempt to hijack the plane. To illustrate that Faraj was unstable, the spokesman said that, during his stay at a hotel in Omdurman, Faraj "at times recited the Holy Qur’an and at others ran after pretty girls."

"Faraj said he had some problems that he wanted to announce to the media. At one point (during interrogation) he said he wanted to hijack the aircraft to London and at another point said he wanted to take it to Doha, Qatar."

Osman said that during interrogation the hijacker had not corroborated Sudanese press reports that he had been planning to seek political asylum in Britain or Qatar.

He said that Faraj was overpowered by the plane’s crew before he had a chance to say where he wanted the plane taken.

One newspaper, the Akhbar Al-Youm daily, quoted an employee at Omdurman’s Nile Hotel as saying the Saudi national checked in on Oct. 7, never spoke to anyone and had never had a visitor.

Faraj would spend his mornings in front of the hotel waiting for an attractive young woman to pass by before he would follow her to her home and ask her family for permission to marry her, the employee told the daily.

On the day of the hijack attempt, Faraj took his room key with him and left the hotel without saying he was checking out and without paying his bill, the employee added.

Faraj, born in Makkah, visited Sudan three times during the past six months and stayed in the same Nile Hotel for a total of around three months, according to the daily. The hijacker denied any relationship or sympathy with Al-Qaeda or any other extremist group, the daily reported.

Meanwhile, passengers of the hijacked Saudia flight SV450 arrived in Jeddah yesterday morning. Most of the passengers were Sudanese.

The plane sent by Saudia to bring back the passengers of the hijacked aircraft had to return to Khartoum airport after it took off because of a technical fault.

Speaking to Arab News, some said they became worried when the co-pilot, Captain Mashhour Al-Nafeei, announced that there was a technical fault and the plane would return to Khartoum. They said some passengers were slightly injured during the rush out of the plane and that two injured passengers had to remain at the airport’s first aid center for further treatment.

The hijacking drama started when Faraj, who was sitting in the club class, went into the first class section.

When a hostess asked him what he wanted, Faraj took his gun and pointed it at her face. The supervisor of the crew fought with Faraj in an attempt to grab the gun, and guards then intervened and overpowered the hijacker.