Alaa Bader al-Hashemi
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| “ | We pray that justice has been served today. Nothing will return the beautiful and delightful mother of my children. But if today’s verdict raises awareness and dissuades another so filled with hate to reconsider, to still her hand, something of worth will yet be salvaged from this horror, the remains of which my family bears day by day. | „ |
| ~ Ibolya Ryan's husband reacting to the news that al-Hashemi had been sentenced to death. |
Alaa Bader Abdullah al-Hashemi, also called the Reem Island Ghost, (died July 12, 2015) was an Islamic terrorist convicted in the UAE of murdering American teacher Ibolya Ryan, attempting to murder an unnamed Arab-American doctor and funding terrorist groups in 2015. Police say that her motive to commit terrorism was her husband being arrested for plotting terror attacks against tourists.
Terrorist attacks edit
In late 2014, al-Hashemi's husband (referred to only as MAH) was arrested for plotting terrorist attacks in the United Arab Emirates. Both he and al-Hashemi had been influenced by the Islamic concept of jihad and were supportive of terrorist groups.
In order to get revenge for her husband's arrest, al-Hashemi decided to carry out terror attacks in the UAE. This would allow her to get revenge on the UAE while pushing forward her radical Islamic ideology at the same time. Soon after she began watching beheading videos and searching up sermons by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. She also "spread information online meant to jeopardize the UAE" and sent money to Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen so they could use it to fund terrorism.
On December 1, 2014, al-Hashemi entered a branch of Waitrose in the Reem Island of Abu Dhabi dressed in a burqa to hide her identity. She then entered the toilets and began arguing with an American teacher named Ibolya Ryan. After a shouting match, al-Hashemi produced a sharp object (possibly a knife) and stabbed Ryan multiple times before fleeing. Ryan died after being taken to hospital.
A few hours later, al-Hashemi planted an improvised explosive device outside the home of a local Arab-American doctor. The bomb did not go off and was later recovered. Al-Hashemi was arrested outside her home, her steering wheel smeared with blood and her car filled with bomb-making materials.
At her trial, al-Hashemi claimed to suffer from a schizophrenia-like mental illness that caused her to see visions. Experts brought forward by the court disagreed and said she was mentally competent and aware of her actions. Al-Hashemi was convicted of murder, attempted murder and funding terrorism and sentenced to death by firing squad. After her sentence was reviewed by President Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan (as is the law in the country), al-Hashemi was executed on July 12, 2015.