Nezar Hindawi

Nezar Nawwaf al-Mansur al-Hindawi (Arabic: نزار نواف منصور الهنداوي‎, born 1954) is a Jordanian who was found guilty of attempting to place a bomb on an El Al flight in Heathrow airport, London on April 17, 1986. Hindawi packed the bomb into the carry-on bag of his pregnant Irish fiancée, Anne-Marie Murphy. The bomb was found by El Al security. The incident became known as the Hindawi Affair.

Background

Hindawi was born in Baqura, Jordan, just south of the Sea of Gallilee. In 1979, after beginning a career as a journalist in Amman, he moved to London.

Attempted bombing

Hindawi went to Syria in 1985, where he was allegedly recruited by officials in Syrian Air Force Intelligence to carry out a bombing on an El Al airliner. Once he received the explosives in London, he gave them to his pregnant fiancée Anne Mary Murphy, who unknowingly took his bag. When she attempted to board her flight from Heathrow Airport to Tel Aviv, El Al security officials stopped her, and the police began a search for Hindawi. Hindawi surrendered to police the following day and was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment.