Muhammad Zaidan

Common card · No. 437696

Muhammad Zaidan (1948 – 8 March 2004), also known as Muhammad Abbas and by the nom de guerre Abu Abbas (Arabic: أبو عباس Abū ʿAbbās, AH-boo ə-BAHSS), was a Palestinian militant who founded the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) with Tal'at Ya'qub and led the group from 1977 until his death. He planned the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, during which the American passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1984 to 1991. An Italian court convicted him in absentia in 1986 and sentenced him to life imprisonment, but he never served any time. Zaidan lived in Baghdad from 1994 under the protection of Saddam Hussein. United States forces captured him in Baghdad in April 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, and he died in their custody in March 2004.

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