Suspect in 1982 attack on Paris Jewish restaurant faces judge after extradition

Suspect in 1982 Paris Jewish Restaurant Attack Extradited to France

French authorities have detained a 72-year-old man considered a key suspect in the 1982 grenade and gun attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris that killed six people. Hicham Harb, also known as Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, was extradited by the Palestinian Authority on Thursday and taken into custody upon arrival at the Villacoublay military airbase outside Paris, according to the national anti-terrorism prosecution office (PNAT). He is expected to be formally notified of the arrest warrant against him on Friday.

Harb is accused of helping coordinate the assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Rue des Rosiers, in the heart of Paris’s historic Jewish Marais district. On 9 August 1982, a group of three to five men threw a grenade into the dining room before opening fire on customers, killing six people and wounding 22 others. The attack was attributed to the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, a Palestinian splinter group that broke away from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by the notorious militant Abu Nidal, who was shot dead in Iraq in 2002.

Extradition and Judicial Cooperation

The extradition followed coordination between France and the Palestinian Authority. French President Emmanuel Macron thanked the Palestinian Authority and said the move was “a concrete demonstration” of judicial cooperation resulting from France’s recognition of a Palestinian state in September 2025, as reported by multiple outlets. The Elysée stated that the transfer reflected “the concrete translation of the judicial cooperation that we can now carry out following the recognition of the state of Palestine,” and thanked the Palestinian authorities for their cooperation and commitment to fighting terrorism, as President Mahmoud Abbas had promised.

Palestinian authorities arrested Harb in September 2025, days before Macron formally recognized a Palestinian state. The transfer was delayed by conflict in the Middle East, which led to airspace closures and pushed back the operation by several weeks, according to France’s foreign ministry. Abbas said later that year that Harb would be extradited, telling Le Figaro that France’s recognition had created “an appropriate framework for this French request.”

Legal Proceedings and Reactions

Harb is one of four suspects sought in connection with the attack. Two other suspects are already in French custody, and in February, France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, confirmed that a trial would proceed, a ruling that had been challenged by the defendants. Three other suspects are in absentia, living in the West Bank, Jordan, and Kuwait. No one has ever been convicted of carrying out the six killings.

Harb’s lawyer described the extradition as “a serious violation of Palestinian fundamental law.” David Pere, a lawyer representing several families of victims, said, “Forty-four years is too long,” and called for the trial to be held as quickly as possible. The attack was one of the deadliest post-war cases of antisemitic violence in France, and its reopening nearly 44 years later has drawn attention to the country’s broader fight against terrorism and its recent diplomatic shift on Palestinian statehood.