Senate hostage crisis

The Senate hostage crisis occurred in 20 BBY during the Clone Wars when the Hutt Grand Council hired the bounty hunter Cad Bane to organize a raid on the Republic Executive Building aimed at capturing members of the Galactic Senate. Bane sought to force Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to issue a pardon for the Hutt crime lord Ziro Desilijic Tiure, who had previously been arrested and imprisoned in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center for his role in the Confederacy of Independent Systems' kidnapping of his great-nephew, Rotta. Bane formed a team of bounty hunters that included the Jedi hunter Aurra Sing, the Weequay Shahan Alama, and the Patrolian technician Robonino, along with several Confederate droids. After testing his team by pitting them against fellow bounty hunter Davtokk, Bane deemed his accomplices ready for their mission.

Infiltrating the Executive Building and disposing of multiple Senate Commando guards along the way, the team took a small group of senators hostage. Bane trapped Palpatine and Senator Orn Free Taa in the Chancellor's office by having Robonino shut down the building's power. Bane then issued an ultimatum to the Supreme Chancellor: Ziro was to be released, or the senators would be executed. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker was still in the building, though unarmed, and was knocked out and captured by the hunters. To secure the Hutt's release in exchange for the senators' lives, Bane ordered Taa to take a pardon disc to the Detention Center to release Ziro.

Taa reluctantly complied and was escorted to the prison by the sentinel droid HELIOS-3D. As final leverage against Palpatine, the bounty hunters set up a system of lasers around the senators that would trigger explosives with the slightest touch before leaving the building. Clone troopers of the Coruscant Guard led by Clone Commander CC-1010 arrived to apprehend Bane's team on the landing platform, but the still-trapped senators allowed the bounty hunters to escape with Ziro. Although Bane remotely activated the explosives as payback for the indignities the Hutt had suffered in prison, a revived Skywalker was able to cut a hole around the senators, and all of them dropped into the room below seconds before the explosives went off.

Text and facts from the “Senate hostage crisis/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.