Jordan rejects extradition for 1982 Paris attack suspects

Jordan has rejected an extradition request from France for two suspects accused of carrying out a 1982 deadly attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris, a judicial source says Wednesday.

The alleged mastermind of the attack, which killed six people and wounded 22 others, Zuhair Mohamad al-Abassi, 62, was arrested in Jordan last year.

The request was rejected because at the time of his arrest an extradition deal between Jordan and France had not entered into force, the source says.

The deal was signed in 2011 but became effective only in July last year, after Abassi, also known as Amjad Atta, was released on bail.

Jordan has also refused to hand over a second suspect, Nizar Tawfiq Hamada, 54, because the statute of limitations concerning the criminal allegations against him expired, the source says.

— AFP

This file picture dated August 9, 1982 shows firemen and a rescuers in the rue des Rosiers after the French-Jewish delicatessen restaurant Jo Goldenberg was attacked in Paris by gunmen that threw a grenade into the restaurant and shot at customers with sub-machine guns, killing six customers and injuring 22 others. (AFP/ JACQUES DEMARTHON)