A terrorism court docket in France has ordered six suspected Palestinian militants to go on trial for an assault 43 years in the past at a Jewish restaurant and deli in Paris that killed six individuals, a lawyer stated Thursday.
Attackers t hrew grenades after which sprayed machine-gun fireplace into the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on Aug. 9, 1982 within the deadliest antisemitic assault in France since World Battle II, which additionally injured 22 individuals. Two of these killed have been Individuals.
Although 4 of the suspects stay overseas and sure could be tried in absentia, investigating judges have issued an order for a trial, which may start early subsequent 12 months, stated David Père, who represents victims. The Paris-based court docket doesn’t publish its orders publicly, and usually doesn’t reply to journalists.
The suspects are believed to have been members of the Palestinian militant Abu Nidal group on the time of the assault.
The alleged ringleader, Mohamed Souhair al-Abassi, also referred to as Amjad Atta, is in Jordan the place authorities have refused to extradite him. Three different suspects are believed to be in both the Palestinian territories or in Jordan: Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, additionally referred to as Hicham Harb; Nabil Hassan Mahmoud Othmane, also referred to as Ibrahim Hamza, and Nizar Tawfiq Moussa Hamada, also referred to as Hani.
One of many defendants, Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, had emigrated along with his household to Norway and was extradited to France in 2020. The sixth defendant, Hazza Taha, was detained extra lately in Paris.
Père, who represents dozens of family of the victims and one direct survivor, stated the trial is “historic” for them. “For them, this isn’t concerning the previous however the current. It’s a trial they intend to observe day-to-day,” Père instructed The Related Press.
The one survivor represented by Père wasn’t injured within the assault however stays traumatized by it. “He needs to see the suspects and attempt to perceive,” Père stated.
Jo Goldenberg, the proprietor of the Jewish restaurant and deli, recalled the horror of the lunchtime assault throughout an interview in 2002.
“They fired on everybody who was consuming lunch – everybody,” Goldenberg stated on the time. The place, which has since closed, was a centerpiece vacationer attraction within the Marais neighborhood.
French authorities introduced in 2015 — practically 33 years after the assault — that worldwide arrest warrants had been issued for the suspects.
The Abu Nidal faction, named after its chief, is taken into account accountable for practically two dozen assaults that left no less than 275 individuals lifeless, together with assaults on El Al Israel Airways ticket counters on the Rome and Vienna airports in 1985 during which 18 individuals have been killed.
The infamous Abu Nidal himself was discovered lifeless in his Baghdad house in August 2002. Iraqi authorities stated Abu Nidal, whose actual identify is Sabri al-Banna, died by suicide.
