Norway arrests suspect linked to fatal 1982 Paris Jewish deli attack

Police in Norway have arrested a man wanted in connection with the deadly 1982 bombing of a Jewish-owned restaurant in Paris.

France has for years requested the extradition of Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, thought to have been a part of the Palestinian terror cell that carried out the attack.

A Norwegian police spokesperson did not identify the name of the suspect but said he was arrested in Skien, the small town south of Oslo where Abu Zayed lives, and said an extradition order from France is being studied.

Six people were killed in August 1982 when attackers threw a grenade into the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant and then stormed in with machine guns.

The PST (anti-terror police) did not name the suspect but for several years France has requested the extradition of a man, who has lived in Norway since 1991, suspected of being involved in the attack attributed to the Abu Nidal organization, which splintered from the Palestinian Fatah.

Norwegian media also reported that the arrest was connected to the 1982 attack.

The man, now in his sixties, has previously denied being involved in the attack where five people opened fire and threw grenades into the Goldenberg restaurant.

“My husband never killed anyone. He has never been in France,” his wife told AFP in 2015 in response to an international arrest warrant issued by France, which Norway did not follow up on at the time.