Europe 1 with AFP 3:23 p.m., February 7, 2024

The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Wednesday the indictment of the only suspect in France, the Norwegian of Palestinian origin Abou Zayed, in the investigation into the attack on rue des Rosiers in Paris in 1982, we learned 'AFP from sources close to the matter.

By refusing Abou Zayed's request, the investigating chamber is keeping intact at this stage the hope of the civil parties of a trial in this case. “It’s not really a surprise,” reacted Me Bruno Gendrin, who defends Abou Zayed with Me Romain Ruiz.

"However, it was necessary, after three years of pre-trial detention for my client, to have feedback from the investigating chamber, and for it to tell us whether it is worth maintaining the indictment,” he added.

Civil parties relieved

“The civil parties are relieved today to know that this first procedural step forward has passed, but there is still a long way to go before reaching the trial,” reacted for his part Me David Père, who represents around ten victims and French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT).

The person concerned, aged 65 and the only one of the four suspects in the attack at the hands of the French justice system, had seized the Paris Court of Appeal in the fall, which had examined his request on January 10 during a closed hearing in the investigating chamber.

The public prosecutor's office requested the dismissal of the request. Abou Zayed had initially requested on October 2, 2023 the cancellation of his indictment from the anti-terrorism investigating judge responsible for this investigation, who had refused it.

6 dead and 22 injured during the attack 

His lawyers had justified this request for placement under the status of assisted witness of their client by the "about-face" of his "main accuser", who very recently admitted that he was "no longer sure of having met him ". They denounced an “insane, hypocritical procedure which flouts all the principles of our law” against a man “whose mental health is deteriorating a little more every day”.

In his order refusing placement under the status of assisted witness of October 25, the anti-terrorism magistrate considered on the contrary that the “serious or consistent indications had been reinforced since the initial indictment of December 5, 2020” of Abou Zayed, after his extradition from Norway.

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This judge had already refused a similar request from the suspect in April 2021. The involvement of the person he heard again at the beginning of January "is now much more plausible" than initially, "even if the person concerned still denies having committed these facts", argued the investigating judge.

A total of six people were killed and 22 injured on August 9, 1982 in a grenade explosion in the Jo Goldenberg restaurant, then in a shooting in the historic Jewish Marais district of Paris.