Foiled bomber makes bid for freedom

LONDON, Nov 25 (KUNA) -- A man jailed for 45 years in Britain for plotting to blow up an Israeli airliner was making a High Court bid for release Thursday, his lawyers said. Nezar Hindawi, who is serving what is believed to be the longest specific jail term imposed by an English court, is challenging the Justice Secretary's refusal in November last year to accept the Parole Board's recommendation that he should be released, the lawyers added. His case is being heard over two days by judges at the High Court in London. Hindawi was sentenced in 1986 for attempting to blow up an El-Al aircraft flying from Heathrow to Tel Aviv. He hid explosives in the luggage of his pregnant fianc{e without her knowing, but the explosives were detected and the plot foiled. The potential loss of life, if the plot had succeeded, was 375 people. The Parole Board recommended his release but Jack Straw, then Justice Secretary, refused to act on that recommendation. Hindawi had won the right to a parole hearing after a long legal battle. In 2004, a High Court judge ruled that it was unlawfully discriminatory for a long-term prisoner, liable to deportation on completion of his sentence, the chance of a review of his case by the Parole Board. But that ruling in favour of Hindawi was later overturned by judges in the Court of Appeal. However, the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court) disagreed with the appeal judges and gave him a parole board hearing. The law House of Lords accepted his argument that he had been discriminated against by being denied an independent review, in contrast to other prisoners serving determinate sentences who were not liable to removal from the UK. His release date falls in May 2016 but he became eligible for parole, after serving one third of his sentence, in April 2001. The Home Secretary refused to allow his early release in April 2003. (end) he.nfm KUNA 250943 Nov 10NNNN