The legal technicality seized upon by a Paris court of appeals to reject Israel’s request for the preventive detention of Palestinian terrorist Abu Daoud was disclosed in a communique issued by the French Ministry of Justice explaining why Daoud was released. The communique was circulated here today by the press and information office of the French Embassy.
It said that Israeli authorities “made it known” that a warrant for Daoud’s arrest had been issued by the Israeli judiciary on the basis of Daoud’s role as an alleged perpetrator of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. The communique acknowledged that under the Franco-Israeli extradition convention, the person in question could be arrested provisionally with a view to extradition.
The communique then stated: “The Chambre d’Accusation (of the appeals court) noted that the actions cited had been committed outside Israel by persons not having Israeli nationality and at a time when French law did not authorize the prosecution in France of such actions committed in a foreign country by a foreigner. It therefore decided that under the last paragraph of Article 3 of the law of March 10, 1927, no action could be taken on the request by the Israeli authorities by virtue of these facts.”
CORRECTION The Jan. 12 JTA Daily News Bulletin incorrectly quoted Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger as saying 30 members of his family died in Nazi concentration camps. Kissinger said 13 members of his family died in the camps.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
