A man wanted over a deadly attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris more than 40 years ago has been arrested by Palestinian authorities in the occupied West Bank.
Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra – who went by the name Hicham Harb – is suspected of directing the August 1982 gun and grenade assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on Paris’s Rue des Rosiers, which killed six people and left at least 20 injured.
News of the arrest comes just days before France plans to formally recognise the state of Palestine.
President Emmanuel Macron said he welcomed the “excellent co-operation” between France and the Palestinian Authority in a post on X.
“We are working together to ensure his swift extradition,” he added.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said it had been informed by Interpol of the arrest by Palestinian authorities, under a 2015 international warrant.
Adra faces charges of terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder.
The prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the exact circumstances and date of his arrest.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the arrest had been made possible by President Macron’s decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state, enabling an extradition request.
Along with France, countries including Australia, Belgium, the UK and Canada are expected to formally recognise a Palestinian state on Monday before the annual leaders’ gathering at the UN General Assembly – a move strongly contested by Israel and many French Jews.
Adra is suspected of leading the assault and operating as one of the gunmen who shot at diners.
To date, no one has been punished for the attack, which took place on the busy Rue des Rosiers on 9 August 1982 in the predominantly Jewish Marais quarter.
In July, French judges ordered the trial of six people, including Adra, for murder and assault in a special terrorism court for the historic attack.
Another suspect, Abu Zayed, is in custody in France having been extradited from Norway, along with another suspect. Three other suspects are still at large, believed to be hiding in Jordan and the West Bank.
A trial is expected early next year, with three of the six defendants expected to be present and the others tried in absentia.
Adra is believed to have been a member of dissident Palestinian faction the Abu Nidal group, which was active in the 1970s and 80s.
The group split from Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation and is blamed for a series of violent attacks across the world that killed at least 900 people.
Macron added in his tweet: “France does not forget. It always enforces and punishes. Justice will prevail.”
Yohann Taïeb, a spokesman for some of the victims of the attack, said on X that it was a “significant step” and urged Macron to secure Adra’s extradition “as quickly as possible”.
