1985 Copenhagen bombings

1985 terrorist attack in Copenhagen, Denmark 1985 Copenhagen bombings Copenhagen, Denmark Great Synagogue, Northwest Orient Airlines offices, El Al offices (averted) 22 July 1985 10:20, 10:31 CET Bombings 1 26 Abu Talb, Marten Imandi, Mahmoud Mougrabi, Hezbollah Palestinian nationalism, Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism On 22 July 1985, two bombs exploded in a terrorist attack in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the bombs exploded near the Great Synagogue and a Jewish nursing home and kindergarten, and another at the offices of Northwest Orient Airlines. At least one more bomb, planned for the El Al airline offices, was discovered. One person was killed and 26 people were injured in the attacks.30 års fængsel for terror i København http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-11229144:30-%C3%A5rs-f%C3%A6ngsel-for-terror-i-k%C3%B8benhavn.html TV 2 Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå 16 April 2008 19 December 2018 Thirty years prison for terrorism in Copenhagen Danish https://web.archive.org/web/20151117063641/http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-11229144:30-%C3%A5rs-f%C3%A6ngsel-for-terror-i-k%C3%B8benhavn.html 2015-11-17 live Barry Rubin Judith Colp Rubin Chronologies of Modern Terrorism 2015 https://books.google.com/books?id=ynNsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199 Routledge 9781317474654 2018-04-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20180426213907/https://books.google.no/books?id=ynNsBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&hl=no&pg=PA199 2018-04-26 live Sweden-based Palestinians Abu Talb and Marten Imandi were sentenced to life imprisonment in Sweden for the bombings, which were part of a series of attacks in 1985 and 1986, while two co-conspirators received lesser sentences of one and six years imprisonment.Pan Am Bombing Suspect Convicted in Other Attacks https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/22/world/pan-am-bombing-suspect-convicted-in-other-attacks.html Associated Press 22 December 1989 2018-07-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20180612170829/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/22/world/pan-am-bombing-suspect-convicted-in-other-attacks.html 2018-06-12 live Michael Wines Portrait of Pan Am Suspect: Affable Exile, Fiery Avenger https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/24/world/portrait-of-pan-am-suspect-affable-exile-fiery-avenger.html?pagewanted=print The New York Times 24 December 1989 2018-07-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20180612165746/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/24/world/portrait-of-pan-am-suspect-affable-exile-fiery-avenger.html?pagewanted=print 2018-06-12 live Bombings thumb|The Great Synagogue of Copenhagen (2009). The first bomb exploded at the offices of Northwest Orient Airlines, then the sole American airline with offices in Copenhagen, at 10:20.Angrebet på Northwest Orient http://nyheder.tv2.dk/nyheder/article.php/id-8177482%253Aangrebet-p%25C3%25A5-northwest-orient.html TV 2 Helle Harbo Sørensen Danish 9 December 2007 https://web.archive.org/web/20190219233742/http://nyheder.tv2.dk/nyheder/article.php/id-8177482%3Aangrebet-p%C3%A5-northwest-orient.html 19 February 2019 dead Ten minutes later, at 10:31, the Great Synagogue of Copenhagen, the oldest synagogue in Scandinavia, and the neighboring Meyers Minne Nursing Home were struck by another explosion.27 Injured in 3 Terrorist Explosions in Copenhagen https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-22-mn-6060-story.html 21 September 2015 Associated Press Los Angeles Times 22 July 1985 https://web.archive.org/web/20150215172457/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-22/news/mn-6060_1_terrorist-explosions 2015-02-15 live27 Injured in Copenhagen Mideast Terrorist Blasts https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/23/world/27-injured-in-copenhagen-in-mideast-terrorist-blasts.html 21 September 2015 Reuters The New York Times 23 July 1985 https://web.archive.org/web/20151117030838/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/23/world/27-injured-in-copenhagen-in-mideast-terrorist-blasts.html 2015-11-17 liveNumber of Terrorist Attacks in 1985 Up Sharply; Hijackings Alone Leave 62 Dead https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-28-mn-29586-story.html 21 September 2015 United Press International Los Angeles Times 28 December 1985 https://web.archive.org/web/20150808175650/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-12-28/news/mn-29586_1_terrorist-attacks 2015-08-08 live In addition, at least one unexploded bomb was located by the police. One of the unexploded bombs was found in a Northwest Orient flight bag pulled from the harbour at Nyhavn. Six foreigners were briefly held for questioning by police, some of whom had attempted to leave the country on the 40-minute hydrofoil boat link to Sweden. Another suspected bomb was reported by news photographers to have been found in a courtyard of Christiansborg Palace, where the Danish Parliament meets. Danish Prime Minister Poul Schlüter expressed "sorrow that we now experience that Denmark too is hit by terrorist activity," saying that "we have escaped for many years, while unscrupulous men and organizations have spread death and destruction in other European countries." Responsibility The Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Jihad Organization phoned the Beirut offices of the Associated Press to claim responsibility for the attacks, stating that Denmark had been targeted because it had not been struck in previous attacks. However, many experts believe Hezbollah had been "opportunistic" in the event.https://books.google.com/books?id=hP7jJAkTd9MC&pg=PA338 An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945-1996 Jessup John E. 1998 Greenwood Publishing Group 9780313281129 338 2017-10-19 https://web.archive.org/web/20171019220359/https://books.google.no/books?id=hP7jJAkTd9MC&lpg=PA338&hl=no&pg=PA338 2017-10-19 live Abu Talb, one of the perpetrators, was a member of Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, both Palestinian nationalist groups. Some experts linked the attacks to the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian nationalist militant organisation whose member was arrested in Sweden.Alexander, Yonah (2003). The United Kingdom's Legal Responses to Terrorism, Psychology Press, p. 509. The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front group has also been implicated as responsible for the attacks. In 2000, during the trial for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, Talb claimed that his sister-in-law had been shot and killed in Israel directly by the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1023083.stm Lockerbie lawyers quiz Palestinian 2000-11-14 2018-04-12 en-GB https://web.archive.org/web/20180413114714/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1023083.stm 2018-04-13 live Talb is also mentioned as having links with both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command and the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, which had both been known to carry out terrorist attacks around the time of the bombing. This, along with all four people arrested for the bombing being Palestinians, suggests that the attack to have been motivated by Palestinian nationalism.https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/12/25/one-year-after-flight-103-blast-trail-of-evidence-leads-to-sweden/ One Year After Flight 103 Blast, Trail Of Evidence Leads To Sweden tribunedigital-chicagotribune 2018-04-09 en https://web.archive.org/web/20180410134638/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-12-25/news/8903200605_1_mohammed-abu-talb-pan-am-disaster-bombings 2018-04-10 live Investigation and trial Although traces early on pointed towards Sweden, the breakthrough in the investigation did not come until 1988 when Marten Imandi was arrested in Rødbyhavn while attempting to smuggle three people through Denmark. Police took his fingerprint, which was found to match a fingerprint from the suitcase bomb found in Nyhavn. Police in Uppsala, Sweden thereafter arrested three other suspects. The four men, all Palestinians, were put on trial in Sweden. One of the suspects, Mahmoud Mougrabi eventually confessed to the attacks, himself having attempted to detonate a bomb at the offices of Israeli airline company El Al before being detected, causing him to defuse the bomb and throw it in the ocean off the Nyhavn harbour. The 15 kilogram bomb, the most powerful of the three bombs was retrieved by police, which together with Mougrabi's testimony was key evidence in the trial. Imandi and Abu Talb were sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1989 as the main perpetrators of the bombings. Mahmoud Mougrabi and his brother Moustafa were sentenced to six and one year imprisonment respectively for co-conspiracy in attacks in 1985 and 1986, including bombings in Stockholm and Amsterdam. References 2 External links "24 timer vi aldrig glemmer: Da terroren ramte Danmark i 1985". 2010 DR documentary (in Danish). Category:1985 murders in Denmark Category:1980s in Copenhagen Category:20th-century attacks on Jewish institutions Category:July 1985 in Europe Category:Northwest Airlines accidents and incidents Category:Terrorist incidents in Europe in 1985 Category:20th-century terrorist incidents in Denmark Category:1985 building bombings Category:Palestinian terrorist incidents in Denmark Category:Military history of Copenhagen Category:Attacks on schools in Denmark Category:Synagogue bombings Category:Attacks on office buildings in Europe Category:Terrorist attacks on airports in Europe Category:Crime in Copenhagen Category:School bombings in Europe Category:Residential building bombings in Denmark Category:1985 in Judaism Category:Attacks on schools in the 1980s Category:Antisemitism in Denmark Category:Attacks on preschools Category:1980s disasters in Denmark