Suspect in ’82 Paris terror attack on Jewish restaurant nabbed in Jordan

Julie Wiener

(JTA) — The man believed to be responsible for a deadly 1982 terrorist attack on a Paris Jewish restaurant was arrested in Jordan.

Zuhair Mohammed Hassan Khalid al-Abbasi, 62, a Palestinian man known as “Amiad Atta,” was taken into custody on June 1, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Al-Abbasi was released on bail and barred from traveling, the French news agency AFP reported.

Six people were killed in the attack on the Chez Jo Goldenberg eatery in the heavily Jewish Marais neighborhood of Paris.

France, which earlier this year issued an international arrest warrant for al-Abassi and two other suspects, has requested that he be extradited.

Al-Abassi, police officials said, was the alleged “supervisor” of the attack, according to the BBC. The three suspects reportedly were working under the auspices of Abu Nidal Organization, a Palestinian terrorist group.

The other two suspects are Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, aka “Hicham Harb,” who lives on the West Bank, and Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, aka “Souhail Othman,” who lives in Norway. A total of six people are believed to have participated in the attack.

In addition to the six fatalities, 22 people were injured in the shootings by two gunmen who stormed the restaurant in the middle of the day and fired on customers. Chez Jo Goldenberg closed in 2006.

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