Suleiman Khater

Suleiman Mohammed Abdul-Hamid Khater was an Egyptian soldier who committed the Ras Burqa massacre of October 5, 1985, when he opened fire on Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula, killing seven of them, as well as an Egyptian police officer. While Israel demanded that he be harshly punished, he enjoyed widespread support in Egypt and throughout the Arab world for his actions. Khater was found dead in January 1986, hanged in his jail cell, and the cause of his death was officially determined to be suicide. Many suspected that the Egyptian authorities killed him and staged a "suicide" as a convenient escape from their political dilemma.