Shiite Moslem hijackers freed another hostage from a Kuwaiti jumbo jet Thursday after negotiators resumed their efforts to end the 10-day-old crisis. A man dressed in a white robe descended from the Kuwait Airways Boeing 747 at 9:45 p.m. (5:45 EDT), got into a car and was driven across the tarmac to the VIP lounge at Houari Boumedienne Airport. Algerian officials said the released hostage was a Kuwaiti named Djuma Abdelhak Chatti. The elderly, grizzled man was greeted by Kuwaiti officials and hustled inside the building. ``Praise to God, I am fine, but they had me tied all the time and I am tired,'' said Chatti, who gave his age as 70. ``They are not good people,'' he told reporters in the airport lounge. ``They beat me.'' After the release, the hijackers broadcast a message to the control tower in Arabic and English repeating their demand for the release of 17 pro-Iranian terrorists jailed in Kuwait. The statement said Chatti had been released for ``strictly humanitarian reasons.'' Kuwait has refused the demand of the gunmen, who seized the plane April 5 on a Bangkok-Kuwait flight and are holding at least 30 hostages. On Thursday evening, Kuwait's deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Al-Osaimi, reiterated that the 17 would not be freed. Al-Osaimi is head of a high-level Kuwaiti delegation on the scene. Another Kuwaiti official, speaking to reporters on condition he not be identified, said the Algerian authorities continued to put pressure on Kuwait to be more flexible in its position. ``You can see this from the fact that they are telling us that the ball is in our court,'' the official said. Negotiations between the hijackers and Algerian mediators resumed Thursday evening after a breakdown earlier in the day caused by the lack of progress, according to the official Algerian news agency. In Washington, lawmakers urged Secretary of State George P. Shultz to intervene because of reports that one of the hijackers might be responsible for kidnapping American journalist Terry Anderson in Lebanon. Kuwait's independent al-Qabas newspaper reported Wednesday that the alleged kidnapper, Imad Mughniyeh, was believed to have boarded the plane when it landed in Mashhad, Iran. Mughniyeh has been identified as one of the security chiefs in Beirut for Hezbollah, or Party of God, which is believed to be the umbrella organization for pro-Iranian groups holding foreign hostages in Lebanon. From Mashhad, the plane flew to Larnaca, Cyprus, where Palestine Liberation Organization officials negotiated with the hijackers. The gunmen have killed two passengers and freed 70. Among the remaining hostages are three members of Kuwait's royal family. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat accused Iran of being behind the hijacking and said some of the gunmen ``belong to the Iranian government.'' Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel-Meguid echoed Arafat's comments Thursday in Cairo. In a radio call to the airport tower Thursday, a passenger who identified himself as Ahmed Zayed said: ``I ask my government to release the 17 Islamic Jihad prisoners. If not, they will kill us all.'' Islamic Jihad, or Holy War, is the group that holds Anderson, and it also is demanding the release of the 17 Kuwaiti prisoners. Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was kidnapped March 16, 1985. He has been held longer than any of the 22 foreign hostages in Lebanon. The hijackers, said to be armed with grenades and guns, have threatened to blow up the plane and kill their remaining hostages if their demands are not met. A ranking Algerian official said Wednesday that Kuwait's ``intransigence'' had created the standstill. Algeria's negotiating committee is divided into two teams led by Interior Minister Hedi Khediri. One team is responsible for contacts with the Kuwaitis, and the other with the hijackers. A doctor was allowed on board the plane Thursday to examine the hostages. ``I saw no sign of any illness that required hospitalization or major medicine,'' said Dr. Youssef Mahdi. He later told the official Algerian news agency that he prescribed some ``routine medicines'' that would be sent to the plane. ``The passengers I saw did not have their hands tied and displayed no signs of physical violence,'' Mahdi said. An airport crew also went aboard to clean up and serve hot food, the Algerian official said. In a letter Wednesday to Shultz, Sen. Daniel Moynihan and Rep. Louise Slaughter, both New York Democrats, wrote: ``We know the United States is not a primary party to the Algiers negotiations. But if Terry Anderson's chief kidnapper is on the Kuwaiti jet, the United States government must insure that the negotiators are aware of this fact.'' ``It would be a travesty for Imad Mughniyeh to go free while Terry Anderson remains a captive,'' they said. In Nicosia, Cyprus, government spokesman Akis Fantis said that the jetliner was refueled and allowed to leave for Algiers only after Algeria gave assurances that the remaining passengers would be freed on arrival there. The plane landed in Algeria on Tuesday night. It was moved early Thursday to the end of the runway so another jet could land. It was later returned to its original position about 400 yards from the terminal.
