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Scene of 1980 bombing in Paris
Photo: AFP

Suspect in French synagogue bombing held in Canada

Man of Palestinian origin in his 50s arrested in Quebec for suspicion of planting bomb that killed three French people, Israeli woman outside Paris synagogue in 1980

A suspect in a bombing that killed four people outside a Paris synagogue in 1980 was arrested in Canada on Thursday, a judicial source said. 

 

The source confirmed a report on the website of the French magazine L'Express, which said Hassan Diab, a man of Palestinian origin in his 50s, was arrested in the town of Gatineau in Quebec.

 

"French judges involved in the case are there now," the source in the Paris prosecutor's office said.

  

Two French judges issued an international arrest warrant against Diab earlier this month. He is suspected of making and planting the bomb that killed three French people and an Israeli woman outside a synagogue in an upmarket area of Paris.

  

Twenty other people were wounded in the bombing, which was not claimed by any group.

 

Canadian police were not immediately available to comment.

 

'Arranging Diab's extradition to France'

L'Express said Diab had dual Lebanese and Canadian citizenship and was a sociology lecturer at a university in Ottawa.

 

The magazine said a team of French police, magistrates and intelligence officers were in Canada working on the case and would try to arrange Diab's extradition to France.

 

The bomb was placed in a bag attached to a motorbike that was parked outside the synagogue in a street called Rue Copernic, in the posh 16th district of Paris.

 

The bomb exploded just minutes before a crowd of people were due to emerge from the synagogue. The attack took place on a Friday night, at the start of the Jewish Sabbath.

  

According to L'Express, French investigators suspect that the bombing was organized by a small Palestinian militant group that was at odds with Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.13.08, 22:24
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