Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian citizen, was given a life term in jail on Friday by a Paris court in absentia for the 1980 bombing of a synagogue that left four people dead.
The judge granted the prosecution’s plea for the worst penalty against Diab, a 69-year-old Canadian university professor.
In their summary, prosecutors had stated that there was “no possible doubt” that Diab, the solitary suspect, was responsible for the attack.
On October 3, 1980, early in the evening, bombs hidden on a motorcycle exploded close to a synagogue in the posh 16th area of Paris, killing a student riding by on a motorcycle, the driver, an Israeli journalist, and a caretaker.
Since World War II, this was the first fatal bombing attempt against a Jewish target in France.
Police suspected a renegade group of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, yet no organization ever claimed responsibility.
The 10-kilogram (22-pound) bomb was allegedly manufactured by sociology professor Diab, according to French intelligence in 1999.