A date will be set next week for the multi-million pound retrial of 11 Afghans after the Stansted hijacking of an aircraft carrying 164 passengers.

Taxpayers face a bill estimated at more than £20 million after an Old Bailey jury failed to reach a verdict.

They could not agree after lawyers argued that the defendants had acted under duress because they feared thy would be killed by the ruling Taliban.

Mr Justice Butterfield discharged the jury, which had listened to three months' evidence and then deliberated for 40 hours after retiring on April 2. They reached six verdicts, but could not agree on the other 49.

The 11 had denied hijacking, possessing firearms and explosives, false imprisonment of passengers and false imprisonment of the cabin crew.

The defendants were: Ali Safiz, 35, Abdul Shohab, 21, Taimur Shah, 29, Kazxim Mohammed, 28, Waheed Lufti, 23, Reshad Ahmadi, 19, Nazamuddin Mohammidy, 28, Abdul Ghayur, 25, Mohammed Showaib, 26, Aminullah Mohamedi, 42, and Mohamed Safi, 33.

Mohamedi was cleared of hijacking and false imprisonment on the directions of the judge.

The jury found him not guilty of the remaining charges and he was discharged. Lufti was cleared by the jury of hijack, but faces retrial on the other charges.

The Ariana Boeing 727 was on an internal flight when it was taken over by passengers with grenades and four guns. It was flown to two former Soviet States, developed engine trouble, was refuelled in Moscow and eventually landed at Stansted, a designated airport for hijacked aircraft.

Bruce Houler, QC, prosecuting, said that the Crown would press for a retrial.

The defendants were bailed until Tuesday, when a date will be set.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.