Muhammad Zaidan - Achille Lauro Hijacking

Achille Lauro Hijacking

Throughout the 1980s, the P.L.F. launched attacks on both civilian and military targets in the north of Israel, across the Lebanese border. In 1985 he masterminded the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro. During the hijacking, 69 year old wheelchair-using American Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer, was shot dead and thrown overboard. The four hijackers, fearful of United States military intervention, surrendered to Egypt in return for safe passage out of Egypt, based on the pretext that they had done no harm to any of the passengers. United States Special Operations Command intercepted the plane carrying the hijackers to Tunisia and redirected it to Sigonella a NATO base in Italy. There they discovered that Zaidan and PLO political officer Hassan were also on the plane. Due to insider deals within the Italian government, they were both flown from Sigonella to Rome. From there, Zaidan and Hassan boarded a Yugoslav civilian airliner bound for Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Despite American requests for the extradition of Zaidan from Yugoslavia, he was not extradited due to Yugoslav relations with the PLO. He then flew to Aden, South Yemen and from there to Baghdad where Saddam Hussein sheltered him from extradition to Italy. He remained in Iraq and commanded the P.L.F. (reunited in 1989) until the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Italy sentenced Zaidan in absentia to five terms of life imprisonment for his role in the Achille Lauro hijacking. He was also wanted in the U.S. for crimes including terrorism, piracy, and murder. In 1996, he apologised for the Achille Lauro hijacking and murder of Leon Klinghoffer and advocated peace talks between Palestinians and Israel; the apology was rejected by the U.S. government and Klinghoffer's family.