France says arrest of Hicham Harb, 42 years after attack, made possible by upcoming recognition of Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has arrested a key suspect in a deadly 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris in a move that comes amid France’s preparations to recognise a Palestinian state.
The terror attack on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Jewish quarter of Le Marais on August 9, 1982, killed six and left 22 others injured.
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France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Friday that Interpol had informed it of the arrest of Hicham Harb by Palestinian authorities under a 2015 international warrant.
President Emmanuel Macron said that the suspect had been arrested in the occupied West Bank and that his country was now working with the PA to ensure his “swift extradition” to France.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot posted on X that the arrest had been made possible by Macron’s decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state, “enabling us to request extradition”.
Macron is expected to make the landmark announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, with about 10 other countries, including Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Wanted man
Harb, whose real name is Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, was one of France’s most-wanted men and had been the subject of an international arrest warrant for the past 10 years.
The 70-year-old is suspected of leading five other attackers in the gun assault on the restaurant, which was considered the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in France since the second world war.
The assault, blamed on the Palestinian Abu Nidal Organisation, began around midday when a grenade was tossed into the dining room by attackers who then entered the restaurant and opened fire with Polish-made machineguns.
Harb is suspected of having supervised the assault and also of being one of the gunmen who opened fire on diners and passersby.
He was formally indicted by French judges in July on charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with the attack. Harb and five other men in the case were referred to trial.
Another suspect, Abou Zayed, a 66-year-old Norwegian of Palestinian origin, has been in French custody since his 2020 extradition from Norway. He has denied the charges.
Bruno Gendrin and Romain Ruiz, lawyers for Zayed, see the arrest of his alleged accomplice as proof that “the investigation was not complete”.
“As usual, the anti-terrorism courts wanted to rush things, and we are now seeing the consequences,” they told the news agency AFP in a statement.
The Abu Nidal Organisation is categorised as a terror group by the US and Europe.
