In Court, Irish Woman Curses Arab Accused of Duping Her in Bomb Plot

An Irish woman, allegedly duped by a Jordanian into trying to carry a bomb aboard an Israeli airliner while she was pregnant with his child, cursed him as he listened impassively in court Tuesday.

“You bastard, you!” a weeping Anne-Marie Murphy yelled at 32-year-old Nezar Hindawi. “How could you do that to me? I hate you, I hate you!”

Hindawi is accused of attempting to destroy the El Al Boeing 747 last April. A security agent found plastic explosives, weighing over three pounds, hidden under the false bottom of a suitcase as Murphy was about to board.

Hindawi has pleaded not guilty to that charge and to two counts of illegal possession of a handgun and ammunition.

Murphy met Hindawi after she came to London to work as a hotel chambermaid in 1984. She testified at the trial’s opening Monday that he bought her a return ticket and told her he would catch a subsequent flight to Israel, where they would be married.

She was then pregnant with his child. In July she gave birth to a baby girl.

The prosecution says he admitted meeting Syrian government agents, the military intelligence chief and ambassador to London among them, and received $12,000 to bomb the plane.

A senior police explosives expert testified Tuesday that the explosives appeared to come from the East Bloc. Hindawi, traveling on a Syrian passport issued in a false name, went to East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland in the months leading up to the attempt, according to the prosecution.

Syria has denied involvement in the plot, although Britain expelled three Syrian diplomats in May after their embassy refused to allow them to be questioned about the case.