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 U.S. 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, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and became an

Amal Movement The Amal Movement () is a Lebanese political party and militia affiliated mainly with the Shia community of Lebanon. It was founded by Musa al-Sadr and Hussein el-Husseini in 1974 as the "Movement of the Deprived." The party has been led by ...

militiaman and then a part of

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

. On June 11, 1985, he led a team that hijacked

Royal Jordanian Royal Jordanian Airlines (formerly known as Alia Royal Jordanian Airlines) is the flag carrier of Jordan with its head office in the capital, Amman. The airline operates scheduled international services over four continents from its main base at ...

Flight 402 that had two American nationals on board. The Jordanian airliner was sitting on the tarmac at

Beirut International Airport Beirut ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the fourth-largest city in the Levant region and the sixteenth-largest i ...

when it was stormed by Younis' team. The hijackers forced the flight crew to reveal the identities of the sky marshals to disable them and forced the plane to

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

. Due to fuel shortage, the flight was diverted to

Larnaca Larnaca, also spelled Larnaka, is a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. With a district population of 155.000 in 2021, it is the third largest city in the country after Nicosi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. Permission to land at Tunis was refused, so the flight diverted to Palermo. Upon refueling there, the aircraft was flown back to Beirut. In the early morning of June 12, the aircraft took off once more but returned 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 The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 () was the first comprehensive revision of the U.S. criminal code since the early 1900s. It was sponsored by Strom Thurmond (R-SC) in the Senate and by Hamilton Fish IV (R-NY) in the House, and was ...

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, o ...

-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 agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

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 Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force (USAF). In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form ...

using an

S-3 Viking The Lockheed S-3 Viking is a four-crew, Twinjet, 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" ...

from the aircraft carrier . 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 United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from transnational crime and ille ...

, a sub-department of the

Homeland Security Department The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...

, after having served 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.
"American Notes Justice"
''

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

''. 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 in the United States Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government