The Colombian-Venezuelan citizen Ali Zaki Hage Jalil, an alleged terrorist linked to Hezbollah or Hezbollah, suspected of the bombing of a Panamanian commercial plane in July 1994 that left 21 dead, the vast majority of them Jews, arrived in Panama this Monday extradited from Venezuela.
Hage Jalil arrived at the Tocumen international airport, which serves the Panamanian capital, around 3:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT), as confirmed to EFE by an official source. An extensive security device was deployed at the air terminal that included special agents and the canine unit.
The Panamanian Foreign Ministry reported on March 27 that the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela had approved the extradition to Panama of Ali Zaki Hage Jalil, who, according to the same source, was captured on November 6, 2025 on the island of Margarita, Nueva Esparta state, following a red alert issued by the Central American country.
Ali Zaki Hage Jalil’s arrival in Panama was marked by a strong security operation at the Tocumen International Airport; However, despite the deployment, the transfer was carried out discreetly, since it was taken through an alternate exit from the air terminal.
Flight 901 was bombed on July 19, 1994, one day after the attack on the AMIA airport in Buenos Aires. All 21 people on board died, including Panamanian Jewish passengers, American citizens and Israelis. US intelligence attributed the attack in Panama to Hezbollah, as part of the same wave of attacks.
Panamanian prosecutors allege that Hage Jalil helped organize the operation, including the acquisition of explosive materials using false identities. At the same time, Ali Hawa Jamal carried the bomb on board and was killed in the explosion.
The case only gained momentum again after Israeli intelligence shared new evidence with Panama in 2017; President Juan Carlos Varela later confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had personally transmitted the material.
Venezuelan authorities had long functioned, in practice, as a shield for Hage Jalil. The extradition was only possible after the Venezuelan court accepted that Ali Hage’s naturalization in 2005 was obtained fraudulently to evade Panamanian justice.
