Eventually, the Japanese government relented and agreed to the release of five JRA leaders. They were sent on a Japanese Airlines DC-8 to Kuala Lumpur. The Deputy Transport Minister Dato' Ramli Omar and secretary-general for the Home Ministry Tan Sri Osman Samsuddin Cassim were exchanged with the terrorists as hostages to guarantee safe conduct. The hostage-takers proceeded on the DC-8 with their freed leaders, as well as Omar and Cassim, to Libya, arriving at Tripoli Airport on 8 August after a stopover in Colombo. There they would be sheltered by dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who at the time supported a variety of terrorist organisations such as the PLO and the IRA. Samsuddin Cassim and Ramli Omar returned to Malaysia unharmed on 10 August.