43 years later, the testimony of long discredited victims

43 years after the explosion of a bomb in front of the synagogue on rue Copernic in Paris, victims and their relatives testified to their “trauma”, Thursday April 13, before the Paris Court of Assizes.

>> Attack on rue Copernic: “The charges are not sufficient”, assures the lawyer of Hassan Diab, suspected of having planted the bomb

It may seem a little paradoxical, in this attack, if a synagogue was targeted, it was passers-by and residents who paid the heaviest price. Among the dead, there is Philippe Bouissou, a biker and Hilario Lopes-Fernandes, a neighborhood concierge, but also Aliza Shagrir, an Israeli passing through who happened to be there. “Aliza” means “one who is full of life and joy”, said his son in front of the court. The fourth person killed in this attack is Jean-Michel Barbé. His daughter Patricia is sorry that five years ago, two investigating judges were able to dismiss the case, even if there is finally a trial today.

“The first victims are the faithful of the synagogue”

AT the bar, there are also those who were on the scene and who were injured the evening of the attack. Gérard Barbié is 70 years old, he was 28 at the time of the explosion. He was in his parents’ electrical appliance store and he recounts the detonation, the store suddenly plunged into darkness, then the flames in the street. The motorcycle loaded with 10 kilos of pentrite had been placed just in front of the shop. Trembling, he remembers the trauma of his mother, until her death three years ago, and those shards of glass that she kept in her body until her grave. But Gérard Barbie confirms it: “the first victims are the faithful of the synagogue”. Some applause is then heard in the room.

Thursday morning was marked by the testimony of a woman who was in the synagogue that day. Corinne Adler was 13 years old, her grandparents had fled Germany in 1938. She was celebrating her bat mitzvah. She describes an apocalypse scene but recounts the humorous words of her grandfather, a few seconds after the explosion, he who had come especially from Israel: “for that I didn’t need to come to Paris”.

For Corinne, life has resumed. The ceremony was held the next morning. Outside, rue Copernic was crowded with people. A month later, the teenager lost her eyebrows. Today, this midwife is 56 years old and “a profession that is more about life and joy”.

The suspect, Hassan Diab, announced that he would stay at home in Canada. Represented by his lawyer, he is suspected of having belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and claims his innocence in this attack, which killed four people and injured around 40, on 3 October 1980.

A magistrate of the anti-terrorist prosecution presents “his regrets”

This morning of hearing showed the derisory place of the victims in 1980. It is perhaps the rabbi of the synagogue of the rue Copernic, who speaks about it best. He remembers that day in 2011, 31 years after the attack, when two police officers showed up to ask him if he had noticed anything abnormal or spotted a suspect that day. In 31 years, he had never been questioned.

One of the two magistrates of the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office then stands up and presents “his regrets”. “We are flabbergasted”, “it doesn’t happen that way anymore”, he says. Discredited victims and Jewish victims made to feel guilty. The rabbi remembers that the day after the attack, he went to visit the wounded in the hospital. “A doctor asked me what I was doing there, he said, I said I was a rabbi and he replied “get out of here, you are responsible for this””. The verdict is expected on April 21.