France to try Algerian over 1995 Paris bombings
By Jon Boyle, Reuters, Sun Sep 30, 2007
PARIS, Sept 30 (Reuters) – An Algerian goes on trial on Monday for bomb attacks on the Paris underground rail network that killed eight people in 1995, the worst bombing campaign in mainland France since the end of World War Two. Rachid Ramda, extradited from Britain in December 2005 after a losing a 10-year legal battle, could face life imprisonment if convicted of the attacks, which also wounded around 200 people. Ramda is already serving a 10-year jail sentence after his conviction in March 2006 for terrorist conspiracy, one of two counts on which he was sent back to France by the British authorities after a decade in detention.
Last year’s trial heard evidence seized at Ramda’s London address, including documents relating to an Algerian radical group and a Western Union payment slip bearing his fingerprints, showed he sent 5,000 pounds ($10,150) to the Paris bombers.
At the start of that trial, Ramda denied any role in the 1995 blasts and expressed his « sympathy and moral and spiritual support » for the victims.
Prosecutors are expected to tell the Paris Assizes Court on Monday that Ramda was directly involved in the attacks on the Paris suburban railway stations of St Michel — where eight people were killed — and Musee d’Orsay, and the Maison Blanche metro station in the French capital.
The bombers packed nails and bolts around gas cylinders to cause maximum injuries in attacks intended to punish French support for the Algerian authorities, who scrapped multi-party elections in 1992 that an Islamist party had been poised to win.
Ramda was arrested by British detectives in 1995 on a warrant from French police, who were rounding up members of Armed Islamic Group (GIA), a radical Algerian group that claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
But the British authorities refused to extradite him to France on the grounds that he might be mistreated by French anti-terrorism police.
The decision acutely frustrated the French authorities, who believed the British were underestimating the threat posed by Islamic militants based in the British capital — dubbed « Londonistan » — and major provincial cities.
The climate changed in Britain following deaths of 52 people in the July 2005 suicide bomb attacks on London’s transport sustem, clearing the way for Ramda’s extradition.
Since then, a controversial book by three French journalists quoted former police officers as saying they witnessed or participated in abuse of Islamic radicals in 1995.
The Inspector General of National Police service said in March last year that a month-long investigation had concluded the torture allegations were untrue, although security forces may have slapped suspects violently.
