Court rejects extradition of Jordanian suspect in 1982 attack in Paris

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has issued a verdict rejecting a demand by the French government to hand over a Jordanian man suspected of carrying out an attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris in 1982, which killed six people and injured 21.

The French government lodged a request in February 2015 to the Jordanian government to hand over Nizar Hamada, 57, on charges of attempted murder through terrorist acts, his lawyer Mazen Taweel said.

“The Court of Cassation finally issued the verdict ruling not to hand over my client to the French government because he is a Jordanian citizen,” Taweel told The Jordan Times.

France’s investigating magistrate, Marc Trevidic, issued several arrest warrants in February 2015 against suspects in the case, including Hamada.

The suspects were allegedly former members of the Abu Nidal Organisation, a splinter group of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, according to international news agencies.

Suspects were identified 32 years after the attacks through statements from other former members of the Abu Nidal group, using a French judicial process that maintained their anonymity, agencies maintained.

The suspects were wanted on allegations that the gunmen threw a grenade then burst into the restaurant, opening fire with machine guns, media reports said.

The Court of Cassation judges ruling over the extradition case were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Yassin Abdullat, Bassem Mubeidin and Nayef Samarat.