Al-Ahram Weekly | International

		11 - 17 July 2002 Issue No. 594 International	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

The home slant

Hisham Hedayat

The family of Hisham Hedayat, the Egyptian accused of killing two people at the Los Angeles El Al airline counter on 4 July, have said they believe his motives for carrying out the attacks were financial rather than political, According to one of his cousins, Emad El-Omda, Egyptian security told Hedayat's father that they believe "the incident was due to financial problems with El Al".
Omda, a businessman in Tanta, claimed that the Israeli airline had been late in paying for two limousine rentals from the Egyptian immigrant's company. "We are sure that he had no connections with extremist organisations. He was a pious Muslim, but he wasn't at all extremist. The proof is that he agreed to work with El Al, an Israeli company," Omda said.
Omda explained that Hedayat went to the United States in 1992 "to improve his standard of living" and was hoping to obtain US nationality with the help of his paternal uncle -- physical therapist Ahmed Hedayat -- a long-time US resident.
"His uncle helped him find a job and get a 'green card' after his arrival in 1992. He was expecting to be naturalised later this year," Omda, said.
The family, however, has not been able to contact Hedayat's uncle in the US. "We have tried to call him to find out more about the incident but his mobile phone does not answer," Omda said.
Married and the father of two boys, aged 12 and 6, Hedayat, holder of a degree in commerce from Cairo's Ain Shams University, comes from a middle class Egyptian family. Several of his relatives are senior officers in the armed forces. His father, Mohamed Ali Hedayat, was a former air force brigadier who fought in the 1967 and the 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, his family said. The late Salah Hedayat, a cousin of his father, was a former minister of scientific research and a member of the Free Officers movement which overthrew the Egyptian monarchy in 1952.
Hedayat's family said they wanted to bury him in Cairo. "We are in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recover his body. But first we want the truth to be established because we are sure that he could not be a murderer," Omda said.
In the first official Egyptian reaction to the shooting, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher agreed that he does not believe Hedayat had committed a grudge killing. Maher also said he was sceptical over whether the 4 July Independence Day shooting was a terrorist attack. "No one suggested that this tragedy was caused by anything other than a personal reason," Maher said. "No one knows the motives for the incident yet. It is necessary to wait for the (result of the) investigation before we can comment on it." He added that he was surprised by the over-reaction to the incident.
According to Egyptian police, Hedayat was not on file with the National Security Services and is not believed to have ever belonged to an extremist group.

Send a letter to the Editor Recommend this page

ARCHIVES
Letter from the Editor
Editorial Board
Subscription
Advertise!

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly
Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time
weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation