French police grab Rightists after 3 die

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 7

French police grab Rightists after 3 die

NZPA Paris The French police armed with extraordinary search and seizure powers ar- -ted 13 Right-wing extremists yesterday for questioning about a bomb blast at a synagogue that killed three people and injured 12.

Tne arrests came while thousands of French Jews and their supporters demonstrated against a wave of anti-Semitic violence that culminated in the explosion on Saturday. The protesters marched while the empty headquarters of the extreme Rightist group, Faisceaux Nationalistes Europeans (European Nationalist Groups), were being ransacked. Agence France-Presse later received! a telephone call saying antifascist militants were responsible. '

Another caller claiming to speak for the F.N.E. had said earlier it. was responsible for the synagogue bomb blast. F.N.l.’s leader, -'fare Frederiksen, later denied this. Three demonstrations were held in Paris incluidng one by Leftist groups who accused the Government of

i being “soft” on extreme Rightist movements. More than 20,000 people took part in the last protest of the day. Angry young Jews blocked the Champs Elysees chanting, “Fascist bastards, we’ll' get your hides.”

The police, acting on •orders from President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, deployed all available manpower in an exceptionally intensive hunt for the killers. But the investigators had few clues. Some witnesses reported seeing two men place a package on the roof of a car parked outside the synagogue and then flee on a motor scooter.

! The police questioned witnesses, including the injured, and fanned out through the city and suburbs to ask 'members of neo-Nazi groups Ito state their whereabouts at I the time of the blast. Blanjket warrants allowed them Ito search for arms, explosives, and other evidence in jthe private homes of all suspects. The 13 arrested Rightists were not immediately identi-' fied. I The head of a union of;

[police inspectors, Jose Delthorn, told a news conference that the Interior Minister (Mr Christian Bonnet) had a list of 150 names of members of F.N.E. and unfortunately for the profession, 30 of them were policeman.

The police have been under heavy' public criticism for not taking neo-Nazi groups seriously over past months. Left-wingers as well as police trade unionists accuse the Government of permitting Nazis to infiltrate police ranks.

The dead, a 42-year-old Israeli woman and two 41-year-old Frenchmen, all were outside the synagogue, situated near the Arc de Triomphe on a quiet street in one of the city’s wealthiest districts. None of the victims appeared to have any connection with the synagogue.

Authorities had reported four people killed but revised their number after they discovered one of the badly burned bodies had been identified twice. The police said that one of those injured was in very grave condition but the others were out of danger. I