French prosecutors seek trial of six over 1982 attack on Jewish restaurant

PARIS (Reuters) -French prosecutors said on Wednesday they were seeking the trial of six people by a special terrorism court over an attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris 43 years ago in which six people were killed and at least 20 others were injured.

The bombing and shooting assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the heart of the Jewish district of the Marais quarter in August 1982 marked the deadliest antisemitic attack in France at the time since World War Two.

It came amid a wave of violence involving Palestinian militants. There has been no previous trial related to the case.

A judge has now to decide whether a trial will take place.

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) said in a statement it was requesting a trial of Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, suspected of being one of the gunmen behind the attack and detained in France since the end of 2020.

Also among those it wants to put on trial are Nizar Tawfik Mussa and Mahmoud Khader on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist organisation.

PNAT said it wanted three other people also to stand trial for complicity in murder and complicity in attempted murder in connection with a terrorist organisation.

Arrest warrants for the suspects have been issued, though it is not known whether five of them are currently in France.

In the 1982 attack two groups of men, arriving separately, used first grenades and then machine guns against customers and staff at the Ashkenazi restaurant on Rue des Rosiers.

French media at the time reported that the men were believed to be members of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Fatah-RC), a radical Palestinian dissident group then based in Iraq and led by Abu Nidal.

(Reporting by Dominique VidalonEditing by Gareth Jones)