Attack on rue des Rosiers in Paris: 40 years later, victims await trial
On August 9, 1982, gunmen attacked a Jewish restaurant on rue des Rosiers in Paris, killing six and injuring 22.
AFP PHOTO / JACQUES DEMARTHON
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40 years ago, a commando of terrorists attacked a kosher restaurant, rue des Rosiers, in Paris, killing six people and injuring many more.
All the light has not been shed on the case and the victims and their families are asking the French justice to move forward.
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A national tribute was paid on Tuesday to the victims of the attack on rue des Rosiers, in the Jewish quarter of Paris, in the presence for the first time of a member of the government.
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “
On August 9, 1982, rue des Rosiers in Paris, the restaurant Jo Goldenberg was the target of an anti-Semitic attack.
6 people died there.
22 are injured.
40 years later, we do not forget.
»
A grenade explosion in the Jo Goldenberg restaurant was followed by a shooting in the historic Jewish quarter of the Marais.
The attack has since been attributed to Abu Nidal's Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Fatah-RC), a Palestinian dissident group from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
But today, the families of the victims want a trial, and above all they want the extradition of the suspects.
Only one is in France
, extradited from Norway in 2020. The others are still in the wild, probably in Jordan and the West Bank.
A
secret agreement
would have been made at the time between an agent of the DGSE and the sponsor so that the terrorists no longer strike, in exchange for their freedom of movement.
“
Beyond Biblical Times
”
“
I understand that justice is slow, but here we are beyond biblical times,
reproach
Guy Ariel Benarousse, one of the survivors of this attack.
He was 16 in 1982
.
When it takes 40 years, it's because we didn't want to investigate the case.
I want simple answers, because we cannot have victims who will arrive in 30 years and have Alzheimer's, and to whom we will put a nice medal on their coffin saying that they were victims.
The victims and their relatives are also asking for the lifting of the defense secrecy of certain elements of the investigation.
Present at the tribute, the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti acknowledged that "the victims' thirst for justice has not been quenched".
“
An investigation is underway.
I know that our justice, in connection with our diplomats, is extremely mobilized so that all the light is shed on this cowardly attack
, ”he assured.
The only suspect in the hands of French justice, a 63-year-old Palestinian naturalized Norwegian, Walid Abdulrahman Abou Zayed, still proclaims his innocence, his lawyers denouncing the search "
for a culprit at all costs
".
French anti-terrorism judges suspect him of being one of the shooters.
They believe they have identified three other suspects, two located in Jordan, including the alleged mastermind of the attack, and a third in the West Bank, but Jordan has repeatedly refused their extradition.
(
And with
AFP)
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