Fawaz Younis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fawaz Younis (born 1959), also called Fawaz Yunis and Nazeeh, is a Lebanese skyjacker who was arrested and imprisoned by the United States. He was later released after serving only part of his sentence.
He was born in Lebanon in 1959 and became an Amal Movement militiaman and then a part of Hezbollah. On June 11, 1985, he lead a team that hijacked Royal Jordanian Flight 402 with four American nationals on board. The Jordanian airliner was sitting on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport when it was stormed by Younis' team. After a 13-hour siege, the hijackers released the 70 passengers and blew up the plane. Younis appeared on television as a spokesman for the hijackers.
The comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 created a new section in the U.S. Criminal Code for Hostage 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 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.[1]
In 1988, Younis was lured aboard a yacht in international waters off Cyprus, arrested by the FBI, and flown to Andrews Air Force Base. 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.
According to a Fox News TV show hosted by Oliver North (September 10, 2006), 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, a sub-department of the Homeland Security Department, after serving only about half of his sentence.
