Overview
- Rome’s prosecutor issued a notice of conclusion of investigations on March 17, identifying five suspected co‑responsible for the October 9, 1982 attack that killed two‑year‑old Stefano Gaj Taché and wounded about 40 worshippers.
- The suspects are Abou Zayed Walid Abdulrahman, detained in France in the Rue des Rosiers case, Abed Adra Mahmoud Khader in the West Bank, and Al Abassi Souheir Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Hamada Nizar Tawfiq Mussa, and Abu Arkoub Omar Mahid Abdel Rahman in Jordan.
- Prosecutors say evidence places the Rome attack within Abu Nidal’s strategy and shows objective and subjective overlaps with the 1982 Paris restaurant bombing investigated in France.
- A Joint Investigative Team with Paris was set up on February 8, 2023, and investigators drew on technical inquiries, witness material, archival records, and a June 14, 2022 memorandum from the Jewish Community of Rome.
- The five have 20 days to submit defensive briefs before a decision on indictment, while an earlier Rome court ruling in 1989 imposed a life sentence on Osama Abdel Al Zomar for participation in the same attack.