12 October 2007
French police have reportedly identified a 55 year-old Palestinian man now living in Canada as the suspected perpetrator of a bomb attack at a Paris synagogue that killed four people in 1980. The man was traced after German intelligence officials acquired a membership list of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Special Operations (PFLP-OS), a now-defunct Palestinian extremist group that was behind the bomb attack. The attack happened outside the synagogue in Rue Copernic in October 1980 and three French men and a young Israeli woman, all passers-by, lost their lives.
Police drew up an identikit photograph of a young man with a moustache who was seen parking the motor-cycle that contained the bomb, and they also traced two fake Cypriot passports which he was believed to have used. According to the newspaper “Le Figaro”, a judge has now instructed investigators to find out more about the suspect, who had spent many years in the United States before moving to Canada. He has joint Canadian-Lebanese nationality, the paper said. A judiciary official confirmed some details of the newspaper report, while saying investigators were angry that word had been leaked to media, fearing it could jeopardize the investigation.
