A 24-year-old Tunisian, Haabib Maamar, was formally charged here Monday with the bombings of the Marks and Spencer department stores in London and Paris, which caused one fatality and wounded 13 persons. He is also charged with bombing the Paris branch of the Bank Leumi last August 21 which did extensive damage to the Israeli bank. Marks and Spencer is Jewish-owned.
Maamar reportedly confessed to the three attacks Sunday night. He was arrested last Thursday in Nancy after his French woman friend, Isabelle Frigerio, denounced him to the police. Police said they have found no links so far between Maamar and any known terrorist organization. They have asked international intelligence agencies for further information about the accused man.
An investigating magistrate here said Maamar admitted to bombing Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street in London where two people were slightly injured. He also confessed to the bomb attack on the Paris branch of the retail chain on February 23, 1985, in which one man was killed and 11 persons were injured, and to the Bank Leumi attack, the magistrate said.
Frigerio and another woman friend, Souad Aissaoui, an Algerian, were charged at the same time with harboring a criminal and with complicity in storing dangerous explosives. Frigerio accused Maamar of trying to break into her apartment in Nancy and of physical violence and threats against her. She told police that Maamar had talked to her about his terrorist activities.
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.
