A French terrorism court has ordered six suspected Palestinian Arab terrorists to stand trial for their alleged involvement in the 1982 massacre at the Jo Goldenberg Jewish restaurant in Paris, in which six people were murdered and 22 wounded, the Associated Press reported.
The attack, carried out on August 9, 1982, remains the deadliest antisemitic assault in France since World War II. The terrorists threw grenades into the restaurant before opening fire with automatic weapons. Two of the victims were American citizens.
The suspects are believed to have been members of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, responsible for dozens of deadly attacks during the 1970s and 1980s.
While four of the suspects remain at large - likely to be tried in absentia - French authorities have moved forward with the case.
Attorney David Père, who represents dozens of victims’ relatives and one survivor, confirmed Thursday that investigating judges have formally ordered the trial, which could begin early next year. “For them, this is not about the past but the present. It’s a trial they intend to follow day by day,” Père told the Associated Press.
The surviving client, though physically uninjured, continues to suffer trauma. “He wants to see the suspects and try to understand,” said Père.
One of the suspects, Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, was extradited from Norway to France in 2020. Another, Hazza Taha, was recently arrested in Paris. The alleged ringleader, Mohamed Souhair al-Abassi (also known as Amjad Atta), remains in Jordan, which has refused extradition. Three other suspects are believed to be in Jordan or the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories.
French officials issued international arrest warrants in 2015, more than three decades after the attack.
The Abu Nidal group, named after its founder Sabri al-Banna, was responsible for numerous attacks that claimed at least 275 lives, including the 1985 massacres at El Al counters in Rome and Vienna. Abu Nidal was found dead in Baghdad in 2002, with Iraqi authorities claiming he died by suicide.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)