Souhaila Andrawes

Who is Souhaila Andrawes?

Souhaila Sami Andrawes Sayeh, is a Palestinian former terrorist and member of the PFLP. In 1977 she participated in the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 and the murder of pilot Jürgen Schumann. Andrawes was the only one of the four hijackers to survive the GSG 9 storming of the plane in Mogadishu.

Andrawes was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in Somalia, but was released a year later due to poor health, after which she moved to Beirut. In 1991, she moved to Oslo with her husband and a daughter until she was tracked down by Norwegian police in 1994 and handed over to Germany in 1995. The arrest was followed by a strong debate over how to deal with foreign criminals. She was sentenced to 12 years for her various crimes and was released after three years due to ill health. She was the first woman to be sentenced twice for such a crime. Andrawes has since resided in Oslo with her husband, a Palestinian academic and human rights activist Dr. Ahmad Abu Matar, and their daughter.