Breaking News: Norwegian Court Rules for Extradition of Palestinian Charged with Paris Jewish Quarter Atrocity

September 26, 2020

"Wiesenthal Centre and Norwegian Christian members on 11 September urged Prime Minister Erna Solberg to honour French extradition request for trial in Paris"

"Had the murderer, Anders Behring Breivik, fled Norway, your government would have surely sought his extradition for trial, to ensure that the families of the victims and of the survivors reach closure through justice...The families of the Rue de Rosiers atrocity deserve no less”


PARIS - Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, argued in his 11 September letter to Prime Minister Erna Solberg: "Walid Abdurahman Abu Zayed has evaded justice for 38 years... The rue des Rosiers families of the six dead and the 22 wounded, on 9 August 1982, deserve closure".. "His transfer to France should take only weeks to arrange between fellow democracies."

The Centre added, "In 2019, a legal agreement with the EU and Iceland came into effect, permitting an extradition within 45 days... Abu Zayed can make a last resort appeal to Norway's Justice and Public Security Minister."

Samuels wrote to the Minister, Monica Maeland, calling for "such a maneuver to be rejected", adding, "Madam Minister, Norway has been targetted by terrorism, especially in the 22 July 2011 massacre in Oslo and Utoya, where 77 were killed and over 300 wounded - mostly young people. Had the murderer, Anders Behring Breivik, fled Norway, your government would have surely sought his extradition for trial, to ensure that the families of the victims and of the survivors reach closure through justice... The families of the Rue de Rosiers atrocity deserve no less”...

"Madam Minister, endorse this extradition for Norway to grant them justice in Paris... This may even provide the grounds for extradition of Abu Zayed's terrorist partners from their sanctuary in Jordan and the Palestine authority."

The letter added, "David Pere, Advocate of the 'French Association of Terrorism Victims' (AFVT) - who successfully defended Samuels from a Franco-Palestinian organization's charges of defamation - stressed 'the symbolic importance in view of the current trial of the January 2015 attacks (on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket), that suspects charged must face their responsabilities."

As the late Simon Wiesenthal would say, "Longevity is no excuse for impunity," concluded Samuels.

For further information, contact Dr. Samuels at: csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. 



The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).