Netanyahu's ICC lawyer denounces Hezbollah assassination plot against him in France
French authorities opened an investigation following suspicions of a plot to assassinate French lawyer Olivier Pardo, who represents Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the International Criminal Court, Le Parisien reported on Monday.
The investigation started after Pardo told the authorities about a meeting he had with 47-year-old Ruddy Terranova, a former convict who had spent 14 years in prison for criminal activities and later adopted radical Islam, who told him about the plot.
According to Terranova, Hezbollah operatives approached him while he was in Senegal and asked him to take out Pardo when he turned back to France. He rejected the proposition and arranged the meeting to warn the lawyer about the plot.
The report also highlighted that Terranova warned Pardo that the reason behind the Hezbollah assassination plot was the fact that he was representing Netanyahu at the ICC, and that there was a real possibility that someone else would try to assassinate him.
After the meeting, which lasted around an hour and a half, Pardo reported the incident to the French Police, who opened an investigation and estimated that the plot was most likely real.
Hezbollah plans to assassinate Netanyahu's lawyer
The report cites three reasons for the veracity of the plot: Terranova's complex background, the fact that he didn't threaten or demand any compensation for the information, and the similarity it would have with other cases centered around the Lebanese terrorist organization.
Terranova was also arrested for questioning, while an official legal investigation was opened under the supervision of an investigating judge and the Anti-Terrorism Unit, with the aim of identifying possible masterminds if they exist.
Pardo, who has had high-level clients before, is facing an assassination plot for the first time. 'I understand that it is part of the job,' he told the French paper.
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