The December 27, 1985 attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Abu Nidal at Vienna Airport, which claimed four lives, remains one of the most severe incidents in Austria's recent history. Three passengers and one assailant were killed, and 38 others were injured. Nearly 40 years later, the final imprisoned terrorist involved in the attack has passed away after spending 38 years in Stein Prison.
A spokesman for Stein Prison confirmed to APA on Wednesday evening that Tawfik Ben Ahmed Chaovali had been found dead in his cell, following media reports. As with all deaths in custody, an autopsy was automatically ordered. The spokesman declined to provide further details, including the exact time of death.
Chaovali, along with another terrorist, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987. While his accomplice was released after 22 years and relocated to Jordan, Chaovali remained imprisoned for 38 years. In 1995, he briefly escaped from Garsten Prison in Upper Austria but was recaptured two hours later in a house basement in Steyr.
After being transferred to Graz-Karlau Prison, Chaovali made another escape attempt in November 1996, taking three prison staff members hostage. He was overpowered by officers from the Cobra task force and received an additional 19-year sentence for the kidnapping.
Until his death, Chaovali never renounced terrorism, according to the "Kronen Zeitung," which reported that he had even joined the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).
On December 27, 1985, after carrying out the attack, the injured attackers fled the scene in a car stolen from outside the airport. Following a high-speed chase along the B9, police apprehended the terrorists near Fischamend. During a subsequent shootout, one attacker, 25-year-old Abdel Aziz Merzoughi, was killed. The other two, Chaovali, also 25 at the time, and 26-year-old Mongi Ben Saadaoui, both seriously injured, eventually surrendered.
The three assailants were Palestinian refugees from the Sabra and Shatila camps, which gained notoriety in 1982 when Christian militias massacred civilians there during the Lebanese civil war.
The attackers had received training in Lebanon for their mission in Vienna. The mastermind behind the Vienna airport attack, as well as a simultaneous assault on Rome's Fiumicino airport, was Sabri al-Banna, better known as Abu Nidal, a globally wanted terrorist leader at the time.
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