Quebec, Canada – Arrest in Decades-Old Paris Synagogue Attack

Quebec, Canada – Canadian police have captured a man suspected of bombing a Paris synagogue in 1980. The man, Hassan Diab, was nabbed today in the city of Gatineau. French judges issued an international arrest warrant for Diab several days earlier.

Diab, 54, is accused of planting a bomb on a motorbike on Rue Copernic in Paris, outside a synagogue. The resulting explosion killed four people, three French men and one Israeli woman, and wounded 20. No terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bomb was placed in a bag attached to a motorbike that was parked outside the synagogue in a street called Rue Copernic, in the posh 16th district of Paris.

The bomb exploded just minutes before a crowd of people were due to emerge from the synagogue. The attack took place on a Friday night, at the start of the Jewish Sabbath.

Investigators say Diab holds both Lebanese and Canadian citizenship. He also spent time in the United States. He worked as a sociology lecturer in Ottawa.

The investigation into the 27-year-old bombing was reopened following the discovery of a small terrorist group now believed to have perpetrated the attack. The group was opposed to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization, investigators say.