The extradition of Odfried Hepp, a 27-year-old neo-Nazi, to West Germany for trial on charges of complicity in a number of terrorist attacks and anti-Jewish activities was approved last week by a French court here.
The Paris criminal court had refused to extradite Hepp for alleged participation in the printing of forged currency in an EI Fatah camp in Beirut. The court held such a criminal act was not covered by the Franco-German extradition treaty.
The court said it would reconsider the West German request for extradition of Hepp as a member of the PLO after the court gets additional information on that issue from West German authorities.
Hepp is suspected of various anti-Jewish actions in both France and West Germany. French police at one time linked Hepp to the blast at the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris in October, 1980, in which four Jews were killed, 32 injured and the synagogue suffered extensive damage. French police also linked Hepp with the Rue des Rosier attack against a Jewish restaurant.
However, the French police never managed to gather evidence against Hepp and he has not been charged with any crimes in France. Arrested last April, Hepp will be tried by a West German court on charges of using a false passport to cross the German-French border and for illegal possession of concealed weapons.
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