Fawaz Younis (born 1959), also known as Fawaz Yunis and Nazeeh, is a Lebanese hijacker who was arrested in international waters pursuant to an arrest warrant issued in the United States. He was transported to the US and convicted; he was sentenced to 30 years. He was later deported after serving sixteen years of his sentence. He was born in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

and became an Amal Movement militiaman and then a part of Hezbollah. On June 11, 1985, he led a team that hijacked Royal Jordanian Flight 402 with two American nationals on board. The Jordanian airliner was sitting on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport when it was stormed by Younis' team. The hijackers forced the flight crew to reveal the identities of the

sky marshal A sky marshal is a covert law enforcement or counter-terrorist agent on board a commercial aircraft to counter aircraft hijackings. Such an agent is also known as an air marshal, a flight marshal, or an in-flight security officer (IFSO). Sky marsh ...

s to disable them and forced the plane to

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. Due to fuel shortage, the flight was diverted to

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 1 ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. Permission to land at Tunis was refused, so the flight diverted to Palermo. After refueling there, the aircraft was flown back to Beirut. In the early morning of June 12, the aircraft took off again, but returned again after two hours. After the 13-hour siege, the hijackers released the 70 passengers and blew up the plane. Younis appeared on television as a spokesman for the hijackers.

Rendition

The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 created a new section in the U.S. Criminal Code for

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refr ...

taking and the Omnibus Diplomatic Security And Antiterrorism Act of 1986 established a new extraterritorial statute pertaining to terrorist acts conducted abroad against U.S. citizens and interests. Upon approval by the host country, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

has the legal authority to deploy FBI personnel to conduct extraterritorial investigations in the host country where the criminal act has been committed, enabling the United States to prosecute terrorists for crimes committed against U.S. citizens. In September 1987, Younis was lured aboard a yacht in international waters off

with promises of a drug deal, arrested by the FBI, and flown to Andrews Air Force Base using an

S-3 Viking The Lockheed S-3 Viking is a four-crew, twin-engine turbofan-powered jet aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Corporation. Because of its characteristic sound, it was nicknamed the "War Hoover" after th ...

from on board . He was the first person charged under the new federal hostage-taking statute that gave the U.S. jurisdiction over terrorist acts overseas involving American citizens. He was sentenced to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison. Fawaz Younis was released by the U.S. government on February 18, 2005, and deported to Lebanon in March 2005 by

Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration th ...

, a sub-department of the

Homeland Security Department The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

, after serving sixteen years of his sentence.

References

External links

Fawaz Younis Federal Indictment 87-CR-0377

Hezbollah attacked Airports & Airlines target (June 7, 1985, Greece)

* Sciolino, Elaine (September 19, 1987)
"Friend Led Terror Suspect to F.B.I., Lawyer Says"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''.
"American Notes Justice"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''. September 28, 1987. * Noble, Kenneth B. (September 18, 1987)
"Lebanese Suspect in '85 Hijacking Arrested by the F.B.I. While at Sea"
''The New York Times''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Younis, Fawaz Living people 1959 births Hijackers Lebanese people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government