| Hindawi Affair |
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OVERVIEW On the morning of April 17 at Heathrow Airport in London, Israeli security guards outside of El Al airlines found Semtex explosives in a bag of Anne Murphy , a pregnant Irishwoman attempting to fly with 375 fellow passengers to Tel Aviv. In addition, a functioning calculator in the bag was found to be a timed triggering device. She was apparently unaware of the contents, and had been given the bag by her fiance Nizar Hindawi , a Jordanian . A manhunt ensued, resulting in Hindawi's arrest the following day after he surrendered to police. Hindawi was found guilty by a British court in the Old Bailey and received 45 years imprisonment, the longest criminal sentence in British history. BACKGROUND During Hindawi's subsequent interrogations and trial he described two conflicting stories leading up to the incident. In the first, Hindawi claimed to have arranged the plot with high ranking officers in Syrian Air Force intelligence a year earlier in Damascus , where he was given Syrian papers and instructions for operating the explosives. He supposedly conducted a training run back in England before returning again to Syria for final details and preparation. As for the explosives themselves, Hindawi said that they were delivered to him in the Royal Garden Hotel in London on April 5, less than two weeks prior to the attempted bombing. This story is supported by the fact that Hindawi first sought refuge in the Syrian embassy after he had learned of the failed bombing, and Syrian officials were in the process of altering his appearance before he fled again, only to surrender to police. Also, British intelligence had previously intercepted Syrian communications with Hindawi's name, Hindawi was using genuine Syrian documents although he was not Syrian, and Hindawi's original escape plan involved leaving England with Syrian agents working on Syrian Arab Airlines . The second story emerged during his trial, when he alleged that he was not working for the Syrians after all, but was being manipulated by , all the while planning for the discovery of the explosives before takeoff. Other possibilities have emerged that suggest that certain members of Syrian intelligence first named by Hindawi were Israeli spies themselves, allowing Israel to have prior knowledge of the plot. This would imply that both of Hindawi's stories held some truth. REPERCUSSIONS After the court found Hindawi guilty, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher broke off diplomatic relations with Syria. Following this the United States and Canada recalled their ambassadors from Syria, though the American ambassador would return in September, 1987. The European Community also imposed minor sanctions. AFTERMATH In April 2001 Nizar Hindawi became eligible for parole, but his right of appeal was denied, a decision upheld by the Court Of Appeal {Link without Title} . SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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