Families of the victims of a 1982 terrorist attack in Paris are demanding a parliamentary inquiry after reports that the former chief of French intelligence made a secret pact with the perpetrators.

They have called on President Emmanuel Macron to declassify the top-secret file of the attack, which killed six and injured 22 others.

At lunchtime on 9 August 1982 a masked and armed commando entered Jo Goldenberg’s restaurant in the rue des Rosiers, in Paris’s Jewish quarter. The terrorists threw a grenade into the room then began shooting at diners and staff with machine guns. They threw a second grenade as they left. The attack lasted three minutes and the terrorists vanished into the district’s labyrinth of streets.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chez Jo Goldenberg in Paris two days after gunmen shot at customers with sub-machine guns, killing six and injuring 22. Photograph: Joel Robine/AFP

Investigators linked the attack to Fatah: the Revolutionary Council, established by Sabri Khalil al-Banna, known as Abu Nidal, whose dissident Palestinian group had split from Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The Abu Nidal Organisation, as it was also known, was considered one of the most ruthless of the Palestinian militant groups. It was thought to be responsible for attacks in 20 countries which killed more than 300 people, including in Rome and Vienna airports in 1985.

On Friday, Le Parisien newspaper reported that the former head of France’s intelligence service Yves Bonnet had admitted negotiating a “secret deal” with the terrorist group. Now 83, Bonnet is said to have told investigators that he agreed the group’s members could continue travelling to France if they carried out no more attacks on French soil.

“We made a kind of verbal deal in which I said I don’t want any more attacks on French soil and in return I’ll let you come to France and I guarantee nothing will happen to you,” Bonnet reportedly said in an interview with investigating magistrates in January.

“And it worked. There were no further attacks between the end of 1983 and the end of 1985 … afterwards, they carried out attacks in Italy, for example, but that did not concern me as long as there was nothing on French soil.”

'Mastermind' of 1982 Jewish cafe attack in Paris arrested in Jordan Read more

Bonnet claimed the then French president François Mitterrand’s chief of staff was informed of the deal, but that “officially … the Élysée knew nothing”. Investigators, also kept in the dark over the deal, have asked to interview other members of the intelligence services who have refused to speak until now, claiming it was a matter of national security.

Yohann Taïeb, the president of the support committee representing victims’ families, said that, if confirmed, Bonnet’s admission was “shameful”. He called on Macron to “declassify documents and take decisions about eventual legal proceedings”.

Avi Bitton, a lawyer for the families, told Le Parisien: “We need a parliamentary inquiry not just on the rue des Rosiers attack but to establish if such secret pacts were sealed with other terrorist organisations.”

Lawyers representing the families have also demanded the extradition of four suspects currently in Jordan and Norway. </s> As Jews in France and around the world on Friday marked the 37th anniversary of a deadly terrorist attack on a kosher restaurant in Paris, one of the country’s news outlets revealed that the former chief of French intelligence entered into a secret pact with the Palestinian group behind the massacre.

Six people were murdered and 22 wounded on Aug. 9, 1982, when terrorists from the radical Abu Nidal Organization armed with machine guns opened fire on diners at “Chez Jo Goldenberg” on the rue des Rosiers during the restaurant’s busy lunchtime service. After exploding a grenade as they made their escape, the terrorists quickly disappeared into the streets of the Marais, the old Jewish quarter of Paris where the restaurant was located.

On Friday, the newspaper Le Parisien reported that the former head of French intelligence, Yves Bonnet, had admitted to making a secret pact with the terrorists, guaranteeing Abu Nidal operatives free movement within France in exchange for a promise of no further attacks on French soil.

According to Le Parisien, Bonnet made his confession in January this year to the magistrate in charge of investigating the Jo Goldenberg attack, for which no person has yet been convicted.

“We made a kind of verbal deal in which I said, ‘I don’t want any more attacks on French soil and in return I’ll let you come to France and I guarantee nothing will happen to you,’” the paper quoted Bonnet as having said.

The pact was allegedly reached during a clandestine meeting shortly after the attack between Bonnet and representatives of the Abu Nidal group — not the terrorists who executed the massacre, he claimed, but individuals he described as their “stooges.”

According to Bonnet, the pact “worked,” insofar as there were no attacks on French soil “from late ’83, ’84 and until the end of 1985,” he said. Among the concessions made during that time by the DST, the French intelligence service, was the permission for two Abu Nidal terrorists to visit one of their comrades in a French prison.

Le Parisien added that it had partially confirmed Bonnet’s claim of a pact with Abu Nidal with two former DST officials, Jean-François Clair and Louis Caprioli. The paper said it had been told by Clair that he did “not deny that there were contacts with Abu Nidal, to do so would be lying.”

Also in the loop, the paper said, was Gilles Menage, the chief of staff to the then President of France, François Mitterrand — although the official position was that the Élysée Palace “did not know anything” about the contacts with Abu Nidal, a renegade Palestinian faction that was armed and funded by Iraq at the time of the rue des Rosiers attack. Abu Nidal’s long list of atrocities also included the Sept. 1986 shooting at the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, that killed 22 worshippers, and the December 1985 simultaneous attacks on US and Israeli airport counters in Rome and Vienna, which killed 18 people and injured 111.

Yohann Taïeb, the president of the support committee representing victims’ families, said that, if confirmed, Bonnet’s admission was “shameful”. He called on French President Emmanuel Macron to “declassify documents and take decisions about eventual legal proceedings”.

Avi Bitton, a lawyer for the families, told Le Parisien: “We need a parliamentary inquiry not just on the rue des Rosiers attack but to establish if such secret pacts were sealed with other terrorist organizations.”

Friday’s revelations about the possible collusion between Abu Nidal and French intelligence came on top of another significant, if frustrating, development in the rue des Rosiers investigation earlier this year. In May, Jordan’s highest court rejected a French appeal for the extradition of one of the suspected terrorists, 57-year-old Nizar Tawfiq Mussa Hamada.

Hamada was not formally identified until 2014, when two anonymous informants associated with Abu Nidal’s group supplied the French authorities with critical information about the terrorists’ identities. In 2015, France’s top magistrate tasked with combating terrorism, Marc Trévidic, issued arrest warrants for several suspects, including Hamada and fellow Jordanian citizen Souhair Mouhamed Hassan Khalid al-Abassi — aka Amjad Atta — reputedly the mastermind behind the attack. </s> France signed an agreement with a Palestinian terror group in the 1980s establishing that authorities would not arrest the organization's members as long as it refrained from committing attacks on French soil, a former top spy revealed this week.

This information, which the French government has denied, was recently revealed by former French spy chief Yves Bonnet and was first published in the newspaper Le Parisien.

Bonnet discussed the verbal agreement between Paris and the Abu Nidal organization struck during a secret meeting between French intelligence and the group. The agreement followed an attack by the organization at a deli in Paris's Jewish quarter. Six people were killed in that attack, in which the attackers threw grenades and shot at diners with machine guns.

Bonnet said that he had guaranteed safety for members of the group as long as they did not launch attacks on French soil, and that he was unconcerned with attacks by the group in Italy, according to Le Parisien. The newspaper also quoted Bonnet as saying that the Elysee officially knew nothing about the deal, but that then President Francois Mitterand's chief of staff was informed about it.

In France, the agreement paid off in the form of quiet for a few years, while the group continued to commit attacks in Italy, Austria, and Greece. The group eventually split up over internal disagreements. During its years of activity, hundreds of people were wounded or killed in dozens of countries in its attacks. Among the attacks were plane hijackings and shootings in a synagogue and in embassies. Its members attempts to assassin Israel's ambassador in London in 1982.

Bonnet's admission has led to calls for a thorough investigation of the matter, and into the possibility of similar agreements with other groups. </s> JTA — France agreed not to target Palestinian terrorists who killed French Jews in Paris in 1982 if they refrained from carrying out further attacks on French soil, a former top spy revealed.

Yves Bonnet, who headed the now-defunct DST service in the 1980s, said this in January to a judge investigating the 1982 attack in which six people were murdered and 22 injured at a kosher restaurant on Rosiers Street in Paris, Le Parisien reported Thursday.

Friday marked the 37th anniversary of the attack, then the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on French soil since World War II, in which the terrorists threw grenades into the packed restaurant.

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The suspects in the attack on the Jo Goldbenberg deli are wanted for questioning as per a 2015 French arrest warrant. One of the suspects lives in Jordan, another near Ramallah in the West Bank and a third in Norway, according to the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities.

None of the relevant governments have agreed to extradite the suspects, whom French investigators believe belonged to the Abu Nidal terrorist group affiliated with Fatah.

“We entered a sort of verbal deal which tells them: I want no more attacks on French soil, but I will allow you to come to France and guarantee nothing will happen to you,” Bonnet said

French authorities allowed two of the alleged perpetrators to visit their brothers in arms in French prisons after the 1982 attack.

“It worked, there were no further attacks from the end of 1983, throughout 1984 and until 1985,” Bonnet said.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report </s> Thirty-seven years after Palestinian terrorists killed six people at a deli in Paris's Jewish quarter, the families of the victims are demanding a parliamentary inquiry – on the back of media reports that a former French spy admitted to making a secret deal with the perpetrators.

A further 22 people were wounded on 9 August, 1982, when two gunmen stormed the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the middle of the day, opening fire and throwing grenades at customers.

The men are believed to have belonged to a radical group led by Palestinian militant Abu Nidal, which was active in the 1970s and 1980s.

According to reports this week in the daily Le Parisien, former head of French intelligence Yves Bonnet told a judge in January he had assured Abu Nidal that members of his group would not be arrested if they refrained from committing further attacks on French soil.

It is understood that the then French President Francois Mitterand's chief of staff was informed of the deal but that “officially … the Élysée knew nothing”.
• Golden days are gone, but Paris's Jewish quarter still has rich story to tell

The victims' families are now calling on President Emmanuel Macron to declassify files of the attack.

Avi Bitton, a lawyer for several of the families, told France Info radio: “We will ask the investigating judge to make requests to lift the lid on this file, so that he can investigate this possible secret agreement between the French state and this terrorist organisation.

"The French have the right to know that their government has made a secret agreement with a terrorist group."

A total of six people are believed to have been involved in planning and carrying out the attack on the restaurant, which was located on the Rue des Rosiers, in Paris's central Marais neighborhood, before it closed in 2006.

In 2016, Jordan rejected an extradition request from France for two suspects accused of carrying out the attack linked to the dissident Palestinian group The Abu Nidal Organisation.

Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri Banna, is understood to have committed suicide in Iraq in 2002.

His organisation was considered one of the most ruthless of the Palestinian militant groups, responsible for attacks in 20 countries which killed more than 300 people, including in Rome and Vienna during the 1980s. </s> PARIS — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was placed in custody on Tuesday as part of an investigation that he received millions of euros in illegal financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

A judicial source with direct knowledge of the case told The Associated Press that Sarkozy was being held at the police at the Nanterre police station, west of Paris.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Sarkozy and his former chief of staff have denied wrongdoing in the case, which involves funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign.

Though an investigation has been underway since 2013, the case gained traction some three years later when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told the online investigative site, Mediapart, that he delivered suitcases from Libya containing 5 million euros ($6.2 million) in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff Claude Gueant.

Investigators are examining claims that Gadhafi’s regime secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time of 21 million euros.

In addition, the alleged payments would violate French rules against foreign financing and declaring the source of campaign funds.

In the Mediapart interview published in November 2016, Takieddine said he was given 5 million euros in Tripoli by Gadhafi’s intelligence chief on trips in late 2006 and 2007 and that he gave the money in suitcases full of cash to Sarkozy and Gueant on three occasions. He said the handovers took place in the Interior Ministry, while Sarkozy was interior minister.

Takieddine has for years been embroiled in his own problems with French justice, centring mainly on allegations he provided illegal funds to the campaign of conservative politician Edouard Balladur for his 1995 presidential election campaign — via commissions from the sale of French submarines to Pakistan.

Sarkozy had a complex relationship with Gadhafi. Soon after becoming the French president, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honours. But Sarkozy then put France in the forefront of NATO-led airstrikes against Gadhafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime in 2011. </s> Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed in custody as part of a probe into allegations he received millions of euros in illegal financing from the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a judicial source said.

Mr Sarkozy was quizzed by police at the Nanterre police station, west of Paris, a person with direct knowledge of the case told the Associated Press.

An investigation has been under way since 2013 into the case, involving funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign.

Mr Sarkozy and his former chief of staff have denied wrongdoing in the case.

The case gained traction when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine claimed to online investigative site Mediapart that he delivered suitcases from Libya containing five million euros in cash to Mr Sarkozy and his former chief of staff Claude Gueant.

Investigators are examining claims that Gaddafi’s regime secretly gave Mr Sarkozy 50 million euros overall for the 2007 campaign.

Such a sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time of 21 million euros.

In addition, the alleged payments would violate French rules against foreign financing and declaring the source of campaign funds.

In the Mediapart interview published in November 2016, Mr Takieddine claimed he was given five million euros in Tripoli by Gaddafi’s intelligence chief on trips in late 2006 and 2007 and that he gave the money in suitcases full of cash to Mr Sarkozy and Mr Gueant on three occasions.

He claimed the handovers took place in the interior ministry, while Mr Sarkozy was interior minister.

Mr Takieddine has for years been embroiled in his own problems with French justice, centred mainly on allegations he provided illegal funds to the campaign of conservative politician Edouard Balladur for his 1995 presidential election campaign – via commissions from the sale of French submarines to Pakistan.

Soon after becoming the French president, Mr Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honours.

But Mr Sarkozy then put France in the forefront of Nato-led air strikes against Gaddafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime in 2011. </s> Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has defended himself against the "mad allegations" that he accepted millions of euros in illegal campaign funding from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"It's an ignominious act, not (just) a lie," Sarkozy said during a live television interview. "I owe the French people the truth: I never betrayed their trust."

The one-term ex-leader was handed preliminary charges yesterday in an investigation of his successful 2007 campaign for the French presidency.

The charges include illegally funding the campaign, passive corruption and receiving money from Libyan embezzlement.

"I'm not above the law, but I'm not below it either," Sarkozy, 63, said during the TF1 interview.

He was detained and questioned by anti-corruption police before he was given the preliminary charges by judges leading the probe.

Le Figaro newspaper reported today that Sarkozy said in his statement to the investigating judges that "I am accused without any physical evidence".

He said he was "living the hell of this slander" since 2011 and denounced the accusations as lies, according to a text of the statement published by the newspaper. The allegations were first made in 2011 by Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam.

According to the text, the former president told investigators that the allegations even cost him a re-election bid in 2012 when they emerged during the campaign.

Investigators are examining allegations that Gaddafi's regime secretly gave Sarkozy â¬50m for his 2007 presidential election bid.

The former president was released last night but placed under judicial supervision.

As France's president from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy put France in the forefront of the Nato-led airstrikes against Gaddafi's troops that helped rebel fighters topple Gaddafi's regime in 2011.

An investigation has been under way since 2013 into the case.

It got a boost when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told the online investigative site Mediapart in 2016 that he delivered suitcases from Libya containing â¬5m in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff, Claude Gueant.

Mr Takieddine repeated his allegations during a live interview with France's BFM TV on Wednesday night. </s> Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday evening was charged with receiving illicit financing from Libya's then-government for his successful 2007 election campaign.

After the former head of state was questioned in police custody over two days, a three-judge panel charged Sarkozy with bribe-taking, illegal campaign financing and receiving Libyan public funds, local media reported.

The 63-year-old Sarkozy, France's center-right president from 2007 to 2012, is already facing illicit campaign financing charges stemming from his unsuccessful bid for re-election in 2012.

The former president, who has been released from custody, was questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Judicial Police's headquarters in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, over allegations he accepted illicit campaign donations from late Libyan strongman Muammar Gadaffi, who was deposed and killed in a Western-led intervention in 2011.

But Jean-Yves Dupeux, attorney for Brice Hortefeux - a former interior minister under Sarkozy who spent 15 hours Tuesday being grilled by the same anti-corruption investigators - told the BFMTV channel that the police fired at least 200 questions at his client, who categorically denied that Sarkozy had benefited from Libyan campaign financing.

Sarkozy himself has vehemently denied the allegations, including ones leveled by Ziad Takieddine, a French-Lebanese businessman and arms broker.

In November 2016, Takieddine told French news Web site Mediapart that he personally transported 5 million euros ($6 million) in cash from Tripoli to Paris and hand-delivered those funds to Sarkozy, the interior minister at the time, and to Claude Gueant.

Gueant, who was the director of Sarkozy's 2007 campaign, also is facing charges in the Libyan funding case.

Other evidence against Sarkozy includes a document published in April 2012 by Mediapart and allegedly drafted in December 2006 by Moussa Koussa, the then-head of Libya's intelligence service.

That document, which the former French president says is a forgery, pledged to provide 50 million euros for Sarkozy's 2007 campaign.

France launched an investigation into the allegations the following year.
Le Parisien claims French ex-head of security Yves Bonnet [fr] brokered a secret deal with Fatah in the 1980s offering immunity in exchange for no further terror attacks in France.