Norwegian justice on Friday authorized the French request for the extradition of a man suspected of having taken part in the attack on the rue des Rosiers, in the Jewish quarter of Paris, which had killed six people in 1982. The suspect, Walid Abdulrahman Abou Zayed, 61, was arrested on September 9 in Norway where he has lived since 1991.
He appeared a few hours earlier in the Oslo court, where he arrived under police escort.
In a dark striped suit, waving his hand in victory, he pleaded his innocence in court and opposed an extradition.
“I am against it because I have nothing to do with it,” he said.
"I don't like France", he proclaimed again.
"I don't want to go to prison in France".
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The Norwegian court's decision is subject to appeal and only concerns the legality of such an extradition.
The decision to extradite him or not should rest with the Ministry of Justice, or even with the government meeting in its entirety before the king.
Suspected of having been "one of the shooters of the attack"
On August 9, 1982, a commando group of three to five men threw a grenade into the Jo Goldenberg restaurant and then opened fire in the establishment and against passers-by.
The attack also left 22 injured.
Given the modus operandi and the information available to France, the operation was quickly attributed to the Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Fatah-CR) of Abu Nidal, a Palestinian dissident group of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
French justice suspects Abou Zayed, naturalized Norwegian in 1997, of having been "one of the shooters of the attack".
Assures him that he was in Monte-Carlo at the time of the attack.
Norway had not followed up on a previous request from Paris in 2015 because it was not then extraditing its nationals.
But the entry into force last year of an agreement with the EU and Iceland now allows it.
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According to Norwegian law, a legally binding extradition decision must “if possible” be made no later than 45 days after an arrest.
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