France says arrest of Hicham Harb, 42 years after assault, made attainable by upcoming recognition of Palestinian state.
Revealed On 19 Sep 2025
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has arrested a key suspect in a lethal 1982 assault on a Jewish restaurant in Paris in a transfer that comes amid France’s preparations to recognise a Palestinian state.
The phobia assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant within the Jewish quarter of Le Marais on August 9, 1982, killed six and left 22 others injured.
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France’s Nationwide Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned in a press release on Friday that Interpol had knowledgeable it of the arrest of Hicham Harb by Palestinian authorities beneath a 2015 worldwide warrant.
President Emmanuel Macron mentioned that the suspect had been arrested within the occupied West Financial institution and that his nation was now working with the PA to make sure his “swift extradition” to France.
Overseas Minister Jean-Noel Barrot posted on X that the arrest had been made attainable by Macron’s determination to recognise an unbiased Palestinian state, “enabling us to request extradition”.
Macron is anticipated to make the landmark announcement on the United Nations Normal Meeting in New York subsequent week, with about 10 different international locations, together with Australia, Belgium, the UK and Canada.
Wished man
Harb, whose actual title is Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, was one in every of France’s most-wanted males and had been the topic of a global arrest warrant for the previous 10 years.
The 70-year-old is suspected of main 5 different attackers within the gun assault on the restaurant, which was thought of the deadliest anti-Semitic assault in France because the second world struggle.
The assault, blamed on the Palestinian Abu Nidal Organisation, started round noon when a grenade was tossed into the eating room by attackers who then entered the restaurant and opened hearth with Polish-made machineguns.
Harb is suspected of getting supervised the assault and likewise of being one of many gunmen who opened hearth on diners and passersby.
He was formally indicted by French judges in July on fees of homicide and tried homicide in reference to the assault. Harb and 5 different males within the case have been referred to trial.
One other suspect, Abou Zayed, a 66-year-old Norwegian of Palestinian origin, has been in French custody since his 2020 extradition from Norway. He has denied the costs.
Bruno Gendrin and Romain Ruiz, attorneys for Zayed, see the arrest of his alleged confederate as proof that “the investigation was not full”.
“As normal, the anti-terrorism courts needed to hurry issues, and we at the moment are seeing the results,” they instructed the information company AFP in a press release.
The Abu Nidal Organisation is categorised as a terror group by the US and Europe.
