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PARIS – More than 40 years after a deadly bomb attack on a synagogue in Paris, one of the bombers has been sentenced in absentia to life in prison, reported German news agency dpa.
A special Paris court found the senior citizen, who lives in Canada, guilty yesterday, several French media reported. The convicted man denied having planted the bomb in front of the synagogue.
Terrorists detonated a bomb outside a synagogue in West Paris on October 3, 1980. At the time, more than 300 worshippers were inside to celebrate the Jewish Sabbath, and three bar mitzvahs, coming-of-age ceremonies for boys around the age of 12 or 13.
Three French nationals and one Israeli woman were killed, and 47 people were injured in the attack, considered the first fatal anti-Semitic attack in France since World War II.
A five-man commando from a radical Palestinian organisation is believed to have been responsible for the attack.
Whether Canada will extradite the now-convicted man is questionable. A decade ago, the first extradition of the Lebanese-Canadian man in the course of the investigation took years.
In 2018, French judges initially ordered the investigations into the man to be discontinued, but the prosecution appealed against this. The French justice system did not find any other suspects.
During the current three-week trial, numerous survivors of the attack also had their say. One woman said, “From that moment on, I was never the same again.” She said the targeted attack on Jews had made her feel she was no longer French.
Another survivor told the court: “On that October 3, something in me died forever – a spark of life.” – Bernama, April 22, 2023
