http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8421833/Terrorist-who-tried-to-kill-pregnant-fiancee-must-be-considered-for-parole-court-says.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d96d67f141b9896%2C0Terrorist who tried to kill pregnant fiancee must be considered for parole, court says
One of Britain’s most notorious terrorist prisoners could be freed after the High Court said he must be considered for parole.
Nezar Hindawi, a Syrian secret agent with connection to Libyan terrorists, duped his pregnant fiancee into carrying a bomb onto an El Al jumbo jet in 1986.
He was sentenced to 45 years in jail - believed to be the longest fixed jail term imposed by an English court - and the then Lord Chief Justice described his act as a “foul and horrible act of terrorism.”
Although he is not due to be released 2031 he became eligible for parole in 2001 and must be released on parole no later than 2016.
Two years ago the parole board recommended his release on condition that he was immediately deported to his native Jordan.
However since then both Jack Straw, the former Justice Secretary, and his successor Ken Clarke, have refused to accept the parole board’s recommendation.
Two senior judges have now quashed those decisions, meaning Hindawi could finally win his freedom.
The High Court said the Justice Secretaries were unable to make a fair decision because they were not given both sides of the argument for and against Hindawi’s release.
“Moreover, the case for rejection was drafted principally by the official who had had day to day conduct of that case in front of the parole board and lost,” the court said.
“That is contrary to principles of justice that our law has always applied in cases however heinous a crime might be,” Lord Justice Thomas said.
The decision will now be reconsidered by the current Justice Secretary or referred to the Supreme Court.
Hindawi, assisted by Syrian agents from the embassy in London, gave a bag to his Irish fiancée, Anne-Marie Murphy, a chambermaid at the Hilton hotel in Park Lane.
Miss Murphy, who was pregnant with his child, had apparently been groomed to carry the bomb with Hindawi telling her she should travel to Israel to meet his parents and he would follow on another flight.
Unknown to her, the bag contained Semtex explosives and a calculator used as a timing device set to detonate at 39,000 feet killing the 375 people on board the aircraft.
When the bomb was intercepted by airport security, Hindawi fled to the Syrian embassy but in court he claimed he had been set up by Israeli intelligence.
Following his arrest, a letter to his cousin in Genoa, Italy, was intercepted, asking him to contact Hindawi’s control officer in Syria and arrange for a terrorist group to take hostages to barter for his freedom.
During an earlier trip to Germany, he joined his brother and another man in staking out the the German Arab Society (DAGB) offices which the other two men bombed in March 1986, killing two people.
At the time of his conviction in 1986 he was said to be very dangerous due to his use of “extreme violence...callousness...lack of remorse and untrustworthiness.”
Dismissing his application to appeal against sentence, Lord Lane, then the Chief Justice, said: “Put briefly, this was about as foul and as horrible a crime as could possibly be imagined.
“It is no thanks to this applicant that his plot did not succeed in destroying 360 or 370 lives in the effort to promote one side of a political dispute by terrorism.
“In the judgement of this court the sentence of 45 years imprisonment was not a day too long.”
Hindawi was from a well-to-do Palestinian family whose land had been expropriated by Israel, and the family had become refugees in Jordan.
He joined the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), became a writer and travelled to London in 1980 at the age of 26 where he began his relationship with Miss Murphy.
A deportation order was made against him in November 2000 to send him back to his native Jordan on release and he has made it clear that he wishes to return.
Five probation officers interviewed Hindawi and two considered he was suitable for release, one thought he could be released if he remained in Britain, while the remaining two did not support release.
However the current Justice Secretary said Hindawi had not had what was described as a “Damascene Conversion”.
Although the Secretary of State accepted that it was very unlikely that the Syrians would seek to use the claimant’s services again, even if they embarked on state sponsored terrorism in the future, he concluded that what he: “cannot rule out is the possibility you may seek, directly or indirectly, to involve yourself in, or otherwise seek to promote, further acts of terrorism against Israeli, Jewish or pro-Israeli targets, which could result in a very serious risk of harm to the public”
Later a Ministry of Justice spokesman, said: "The Secretary of State notes the judgment and will consider his options."
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