He is the only suspect in France. This Thursday, the investigating judge in charge of the investigation into the attack on rue des Rosiers in Paris in 1982 refused to reconsider the indictment of the Norwegian of Palestinian origin Abou Zayed, we learned from a source close to the file, confirming information from the newspaper Le Figaro.
Abou Zayed, only one of the four suspects in the attack in the hands of French justice, had requested at the beginning of October to be placed under the status of assisted witness.
The hope of a trial
If the judge had granted his request, the hope of the civil parties for a trial in this case would have almost been reduced to nothing.
In his order refusing placement under the status of assisted witness of October 25, mentioned by Le Figaro and consulted by AFP, the anti-terrorism magistrate believes that the “serious or consistent evidence has been reinforced since the initial indictment on December 5, 2020” of Abou Zayed, after his extradition from Norway.
This judge had already refused a similar request from the suspect in April 2021.
Decisive confessions
His involvement “is now much more plausible” than initially, “even if the person concerned still denies having committed these acts”, insists the investigating judge.
This is based in particular on the recognition by Abou Zayed, after “two years of fierce denials”, of his status as a member of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Fatah-CR) of Abou Nidal, a Palestinian dissident group of the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (PLO).
He also admitted to having belonged to his military committee, known for organizing deadly operations abroad and to which this attack is attributed.
Six dead and 22 injured
The small number of members of this military committee, “handpicked”, hardly agrees with “Abou Zayed’s statements according to which he was only a simple administrative officer responsible for watering the trees or doing the shopping », reprimands the judge.
The magistrate also mentions witness statements that the investigation would have corroborated, investigations deemed conclusive by the DGSI (domestic intelligence) or even new elements which would support his involvement in other criminal acts of the time.
A total of six people were killed and 22 injured on August 9, 1982 in a grenade explosion in the Jo Goldenberg restaurant, then in a shooting in the historic Jewish district of Marais.
“It’s appalling, we now place declassified information and the words of renegades, dead people or anonymous witnesses on the same level. How far will we go to have a man convicted in this case at all costs?, criticized Me Romain Ruiz and Bruno Gendrin, Abou Zayed’s lawyers. They indicated that they had appealed this decision.