Fadel, the future president of Damascus University, with Leila Khaled, member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who made world headlines at the age of 25 when she hijacked a TWA Flight 840 heading from Rome to Athens on August 29, 1969. She was arrested in London after another hijacking of an Israeli El Al Flight heading from Amsterdam to New York in September 1970. Fadel was one of those who defended her and she was released by the British on October 1, 1970.