Convicted Black Panther murderer to remain free as Portugal REJECTS request to extradite him to the U.S.



U.S. has the option of appealing Portugal court's decision

Fugitive George Wright, 68, is suffering from 'very, very high blood pressure'

He was convicted of 1962 murder before breaking out of U.S. prison in 1970

Then hijacked plane and fled to Algeria in 1972

He was on the run for 41 years until his arrest in Portugal a month ago



Portugal's Supreme Court has refused a request to extradite convicted killer and fugitive George Wright back to the U.S., his lawyer said Thursday.

Wright's lawyer Manuel Luis Ferreira said the court rejected an appeal by the U.S. against a lower court's decision that denied extradition a month ago.

Mr Ferreira said: 'The Supreme Court has denied the appeal. They notified me today.'

Staying put: George Wright will not be extradited back to the U.S., where he killed a man and later broke out of jail before hijacking a plane and going on the run

The U.S. can now appeal to Portugal's Constitutional Court if it wants to.

Mr Ferreira said he did not have details of the ruling. In Portugal, extradition cases are conducted in secret.



Mr Ferreira said Wright intends to remain in Portugal.

A Lisbon judge decided against Wright's extradition in November, two months after he was captured in Portugal following four decades on the run.

The U.S. Justice Department filed an appeal less than two weeks later.

Supreme Court officials weren't available to comment after office hours Thursday, and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

Mr Ferreira said the lower court judge had ruled that Wright, 68, had become a Portuguese citizen and the statute of limitations on his 15- to 30-year sentence for a New Jersey robbery-murder had expired.

Family man: Fugitive George Wright looks at his wife Maria do Rosario Valente in their kitchen at home in Almocageme, near Lisbon, where he has lived since 1993

Wright, now called Jorge Luis dos Santos after changing his identity, is married to a Portuguese woman and has two grown children.

They have lived near Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, since 1993.

Wright was accused gunning down Walter Patterson during a 1962 gas station robbery in the U.S.



Patterson's daughter was stunned by the Lisbon court ruling.



Ann Patterson, who is 63, said: 'I'm surprised. I wouldn't know what else to say about it.'

Wright spent seven years in a U.S. prison for murder before breaking out in 1970.

He and others then hijacked a plane in 1972 from the U.S. to Algeria along with other Black Liberation Army militants.



As he was: Wright has been on the run since 1970. His wife (right) claims her husband regrets his criminal past



He was captured in Portugal after his U.S. fingerprint matched one in Portugal's database of prints for all citizens.

Wright's fugitive odyssey began when he busted out of Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, on Aug. 19, 1970, and made his way to Detroit, where he joined the Black Liberation Army.



Dressed as a priest, he hijacked a Delta flight to Miami with four others, using handguns they sneaked on the plane.

After releasing the plane's 86 passengers for $1 million, the hijackers forced the plane to fly to Boston, then to Algeria, where they sought asylum.

Algeria gave the money and plane back to the U.S., and Wright and his comrades went underground, settling in France.



The others were captured and convicted of hijacking in Paris, but radical French sympathizers helped Wright escape to Portugal.

Hideout: The house where Wright has lived for more than 20 years

Wright met his future wife, Maria do Rosario Valente, in Lisbon in 1978.



The couple moved in the early 1980s to Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, where Wright lived openly using his real name and socialized with U.S. diplomats and embassy personnel who told The Associated Press they were unaware of his past.

Guinea-Bissau granted him political asylum in the 1980s, made him a citizen and gave him the new name Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos, complete with fake names for his parents.

Wright then got Portuguese citizenship through his 1991 marriage to a Portuguese woman.



His identity from Guinea-Bissau was accepted by Portugal when it granted him citizenship, according to his lawyer.

He and his wife moved back to Portugal in 1993 to the tiny town of Almocageme, 28 miles (45 kilometers) from Lisbon.

Hijack: Dressed as a priest, Wright hijacked a plane bound for Detroit in 1972. FBI agents tried to negotiate with them before they escaped to Algeria with a $1million ransom



Wright then worked a series of jobs - as a painter, a nightclub bouncer and a barbecue chicken restaurant manager - as they raised two children.

Wright's wife Maria do Rosario Valente argued in October that h er husband suffers from various health problems and should not be extradited from Portugal to the U.S.



Ms Valente said he suffers from glaucoma, 'very, very high' blood pressure caused by recent stress, and has complained of chest pains.

She claims her husband, who she has lived with for 20 years, regrets his criminal past and has become a more peaceful man since his days in the Black Liberation Army.