Airplane (illustrative)
Airplane (illustrative)Thinkstock

Seif Eldin Mustafa, the man who hijacked an EgyptAir plane on Tuesday, used to brag about having murdered three IDF soldiers, The Guardian reports.

His ex-wife Marina Paraschou revealed this fact, as well as his fanatical support for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in an interview with the Phileleftheros newspaper in Cyprus.

Their five-year marriage began when she was 20-years-old and he 26. During that time he refused to work, used drugs and beat her and their children. "It was a black five years," she explained.

The couple broke up in 1990 and Paraschou claims that Mustafa showed no interest in his ex-wife or children until this week. "Most of the media painted a picture of romance in which a man was trying to reach out to his estranged wife. But that couldn't be further from the truth and they would have a different opinion if they knew what he was really like."

One child died in an accident after the divorce was finalized. When Paraschou called Mustafa to let him know, he responded: "And what do I care? I don’t mind that she died."

Mustafa did not limit his indecent behavior to his family. By the time Cyprus deported him for domestic violence, he had already been convicted of six counts of forging passports. He again used a false passport to sneak into Cyprus after the first deportation, but was caught and forced out again.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry says that it also has a long list of crimes connected to Mustafa and that he was sent to jail in 2014, and he even found time for a four-year visit to a Syrian prison.

Mustafa is currently being held by Cypriot police for hijacking, abduction, threatening violence, terrorism and possessing explosives. Egypt has asked for him to be returned, though authorities in Cyprus say it is too early to discuss extradition.