* Co-pilot lands in Geneva, jumps down rope, demands asylum

* Commandeered aircraft while pilot was in toilet

* Ethiopian Airlines plane had been bound for Rome

* Passengers, crew all unharmed

(Reuters) – A co-pilot who hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines flight to seek asylum in Switzerland on Monday surrendered to police at Geneva airport after jumping out of a cockpit window and scrambling down an emergency rope.

The airliner’s second-in-command, named by Ethiopia as Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn, 31, took control of the plane when the pilot left the cockpit to use the toilet. He then sent a coded signal announcing he had hijacked his own aircraft.

With the airliner on the tarmac, an unarmed Hailemedhin made his exit via a cockpit window, without harming passengers or crew, police spokesman Pierre Grangean told a news conference.

“Just after landing, the co-pilot came out of the cockpit and ran to the police and said, ‘I’m the hijacker.’ He said he is not safe in his own country and wants asylum,” Grangean said.

The airliner could later be seen with a knotted yellow rope dangling from an open cockpit window.

The opposition and rights campaigners in Ethiopia accuse the government of stifling dissent and torturing political detainees. But it is rare for state officials and employees – Ethiopian Airlines is run by the state – to seek asylum. The last senior official to do so fled to the United States in 2009.

Ethiopia said Hailemedhin had worked for Ethiopian Airlines for the past five years and had no criminal record.

“So far it was known that he was medically sane, until otherwise he is proven through the investigation which is going on right now,” Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the Ethiopian government, told a news conference.

Redwan said Ethiopia may ask for his extradition.

Ethiopian Airlines pilots had visas to travel freely to Europe, he said, adding that it made no sense to hijack one’s own plane given “that the anti-hijacking law in any country is severe” and can lead to up to 20 years in prison.

Redwan said among the 193 passengers on board the Boeing aircraft were 139 Italians, 11 American and four French nationals.

CODE “HIJACK”

Flight ET702 departed the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Sunday evening and was bound for Rome. The plane was hijacked at about 0330 GMT while over northern Italy, Grangean said. It landed at Geneva at 6:02 a.m. (0502 GMT).

He said the co-pilot, an Ethiopian born in 1983, locked the flight deck door when the pilot went to the toilet. He then asked to refuel at Geneva, landed the plane, climbed down on an emergency exit rope from a cockpit window, and gave himself up.

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