The French authorities have in custody the alleged leader of a Lebanese terrorist organization who is believed to have master-minded the murder of an Israeli diplomat here more than two years ago.
The suspect, a Lebanese Christian identified as Abdullah Georges lbrahim, is said to be the head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Fractions which claimed credit for the slaying of the Israeli official, Yaacov Bar Simantov, in the lobby of his Paris apartment building on April 3, 1982.
French security sources also believe they know the woman who did the actual shooting, with a 7,6 mm. German-made handgun. She was identified as Josephine Abdo, 26, also a Lebanese Christian and said to be associated with lbrahim’s terrorist group. Her present whereaabouts are not known but she may be in Italy, the sources said.
Bar Simantov, 42, was Second Secretary in charge of political affairs at the Israel Embassy in Paris. He was approached by a woman while waiting for an elevator in his building in a fashionable section of Paris. When she ascertained his identity she shot him twice in his head.
Ballistics experts said later that the bullet which killed Bar Simantov were fired from the same gun used to kill Lt. Col. Charles Ray, the Deputy U.S. Military Attache in Paris two months earlier. Ray too was shot in the head outside his home.
Ibrahim, who carried forged Algerian and Maltese passports when he was arrested, is presently confined at St. Paul’s prison in Lyon. Police said he is also known as Abdel Kader Saadi.
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.
