Suspect in Jewish restaurant attack arrested
June 17, 2015
The Paris prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday that the suspected mastermind behind an attack on a restaurant in the Marais district, the French capital's predominantly Jewish quarter, was apprehended in Jordan.
Souhaur Mohammed Hassan Khalil al-Abbassi, who goes by the alias "Amjad Atta," is suspected of being the "supervisor" of the operation that left six people dead and 22 injured.
France issued international arrest warrants in March for al-Abbassi and two others suspected of involvement in the attack. The other suspects are thought to reside in Norway and the West Bank.
Agnes Thibualt-Lecuivre, spokesperson for the Paris prosecutor's office, said on Wednesday that al-Abbassi was arrested in Jordan on June 1, AP news agency reported.
Al-Abbassi was later granted bail, although he is unable to leave Jordan due to a court imposed travel ban.
"Atta" is accused of taking part in the attack on the restaurant Chez Jo Goldenberg in August of 1982, which was blamed on the Abu Nidal Organization, considered a more violent splinter group of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
Investigations into the attack went cold due to a lack of evidence. A gun found in Paris' Bois de Boulogne park shortly after the attack is among the scant evidence from incident.
French authorities are in the process of requesting al-Abbassi's extradition, although it could take months before he sets foot in France.
France has witnessed an increase in anti-Semitic attacks in recent years with four people killed at a kosher supermarket in January following attacks on the offices of satirical periodical Charlie Hebdo magazine.
ls/rc (AFP, AP, Reuters)