BmOnline » Tor Sep 29, 2011 7:59 am
In tonight's Network First (ITV, 10.40), a meeting is arranged between Souhaila, the widow of the pilot, Monika Schumann, and SAS man Barry Davies.
Now 43, Souhaila feels no guilt about the hijacking and insists: "I wasn't a criminal, I was a hero. I risked my life for my homeland."
But bitter Monika, 53, refuses to shake hands with Souhaila.
She says: "I lost my husband and my children grew up without their father. I pity her. She is a sick woman."
Monika, who has since talked to other passengers on the plane, has been told that Souhaila was the most violent of the terrorists.
"Passengers say she was the one with the hand grenades, always shouting and screaming," says Monika.
Souhaila adds: "It's true, but I was a hijacker. I couldn't smile and hug people."
After serving one year of a 20-year prison sentence Souhaila was pardoned because of her injuries.
On her return to the Middle East she went through a radical transformation, renouncing violence and marrying a Palestinian pacifist. She says: "Many times I've wished I had been killed with the others.
"It's awful to be a Palestinian. It's humiliating. You have no land, no home, no government to protect you. You have nothing."
Since the film was made Souhaila has been tried in Hamburg and is serving a 12-year prison sentence in Germany.
She still has no regrets about the Lufthansa bloodbath.
ANGELA HAGAN
In tonight's Network First (ITV, 10.40), a meeting is arranged between Souhaila, the widow of the pilot, Monika Schumann, and SAS man Barry Davies.
Now 43, Souhaila feels no guilt about the hijacking and insists: "I wasn't a criminal, I was a hero. I risked my life for my homeland."
But bitter Monika, 53, refuses to shake hands with Souhaila.
She says: "I lost my husband and my children grew up without their father. I pity her. She is a sick woman."
Monika, who has since talked to other passengers on the plane, has been told that Souhaila was the most violent of the terrorists.
"Passengers say she was the one with the hand grenades, always shouting and screaming," says Monika.
Souhaila adds: "It's true, but I was a hijacker. I couldn't smile and hug people."
After serving one year of a 20-year prison sentence Souhaila was pardoned because of her injuries.
On her return to the Middle East she went through a radical transformation, renouncing violence and marrying a Palestinian pacifist. She says: "Many times I've wished I had been killed with the others.
"It's awful to be a Palestinian. It's humiliating. You have no land, no home, no government to protect you. You have nothing."
Since the film was made Souhaila has been tried in Hamburg and is serving a 12-year prison sentence in Germany.
She still has no regrets about the Lufthansa bloodbath.
ANGELA HAGAN