“The Rue de Rosiers families of victims and survivors deserve closure.”

Paris, 29 November 2020 

On 11 September 2020, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, commending the arrest of Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, suspected perpetrator of the Abu Nidal Organization’s terrorist attack of 9 August 1982.

The news agencies at the time blasted: “Using machine guns, pistols and grenades, four terrorists killed six and wounded 22, at lunchtime in Goldenberg’s Restaurant of Rue des Rosiers, in the Paris Jewish quarter.”

“This Friday 27 November, Norway authorized the extradition, which is not subject to appeal and must be executed within ten days. France has likewise issued international arrest warrants for Abu Zayed’s three presumed accomplices – two are in Jordan and one in the Palestinian West Bank,” noted Samuels.

“Abu Zayed claims to have been in Monaco on the day of the attack... We are working with the Monegasque authorities on Holocaust victims in the Principality. We will check this alibi in Monte Carlo,” stressed Samuels.

The Centre has urged President Macron to ensure that a Paris trial date be set on arrival. Above all, that the outcome of the 2014 extradition from Canada of Hassan Diab – the sole suspect in the 1980 Rue Copernic synagogue attack – not be a precedent: with appeals from the victims’ families still pending, the suspect terrorist managed to disappear, only to be feted back in Ottawa.

“Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed has evaded justice for 38 years. Simon Wiesenthal would charge that, ‘longevity is not an excuse for impunity’... The Rue des Rosiers families of victims and survivors deserve closure,” argued Samuels.

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“There is no Freedom without Justice.” (Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005)