On August 9, 1982, during the attack on rue des Rosiers in Paris -
AFP
We learned a few days ago that Norway had authorized the extradition of one of the suspects in the rue des Rosiers attack to France.
The latter has now arrived.
Thirty-eight years after the attack, which killed six people in 1982 in Paris, one of the suspected perpetrators, Walid Abdulrahman Abou Zayed, was extradited to France paving the way for a trial, long awaited by the victims.
Presented to an investigating judge on Saturday
Arrived at Roissy airport shortly before 8 p.m. on board an Air France flight from Oslo, this 62-year-old man who moved to Norway in 1991, was to be placed in an administrative detention center before to be presented on Saturday to an investigating judge from the anti-terrorism pole of the Paris judicial court.
France had issued on February 20, 2015 an international arrest warrant against this Palestinian born in 1958 in the West Bank and naturalized Norwegian in 1997, suspected of having participated in the attack which left six dead and 22 wounded on August 9, 1982 in the historic Jewish quarter of the Marais, the “Pletzl”, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris.
That day, a commando group of three to five men threw a grenade into the Jo Goldenberg restaurant, then strafed the interior of the establishment as well as passers-by.
The operation was quickly attributed to the Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Fatah-CR) of Abu Nidal, a Palestinian dissident group of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
"One of the shooters of the attack"
French justice suspects Abou Zayed, father of four children, of having been "one of the shooters of the attack".
“I don't like France.
I don't want to go to jail in France, ”said Abu Zayed, known as Osman in Norway, during a Norwegian court appearance in September.
The man, who claims his innocence, assuring that he was in Monte-Carlo at the time of the attack, opposed an extradition to France.
Oslo did not respond to a previous request from Paris in 2015 because it was not then extraditing its nationals.
But the entry into force last year of a legal agreement with the EU and Iceland now allows it.
French justice has issued three other international arrest warrants targeting two individuals located in Jordan and a third in the West Bank, suspected of having prepared or participated in the attack.
Jordan has repeatedly refused to extradite the two suspects present in its territory, including the suspected mastermind of the attack.
A long-awaited trial
The extradition of Abu Zayed, nearly four decades after the incident, paves the way for a long-awaited trial by the victims.
"The whole gypsy community has been waiting for this trial for years to be able to end this tragedy", indicated Steve Demeter, grandson of George Demeter, pastor of the evangelical mission of the gypsies of France killed in the attack.
“For 33 years (until the international arrest warrant in 2015), we had nothing, no proof, no name, nothing.
It took a while, but it will move forward.
Today, yes, we believe it.
It's a fight, you have to keep fighting to get a trial, ”he recalled.
“A trial, yes, my god, that's all I'm asking for.
But I don't want to celebrate too soon.
All I hope, before dying, is to have at least one in front of me during a trial, ”reacted Manuel Hezkia, 61, son of André Hezkia Niégo, killed in the 'attack.
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