Irish of Vincennes

The "Irish of Vincennes" affair (French: Affaire des Irlandais de Vincennes; also known as the Vincennes Three, or Irishmen of Vincennes, although one of the arrestees was not a man) was a major political scandal which occurred in France during the presidency of François Mitterrand. Following a 1982 terrorist attack in Paris, a secret police anti-terrorist cell established by Mitterrand arrested three Irish nationals in Vincennes. Proudly proclaimed as a victory against 'international terrorism', the case fell apart and the suspects were exonerated when it was revealed that weapons and other evidence used against the three had been planted by the arresting officers, who then lied to the courts with the support of the executive.

On 9 August 1982, the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on the Rue des Rosiers in the Jewish quarter of Paris, was attacked by two terrorists. Two men approached the restaurant, threw a grenade into the main room, and opened fire at passers-by with an automatic weapon, killing six people and wounding 22.

Shortly after the Goldenberg incident, Mitterrand assigned Christian Prouteau, head of the elite National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale – GIGN), to organise the establishment of a 'Mission of coordination, information and action against terrorism' (later simply called the 'anti-terrorist cell'), to operate in secret and to report directly to the office of the President (police and security services would normally fall under the responsibilities of the Minister of the Interior).

On 28 August, the cell requested the arrest of three activists linked to the Irish nationalist movement via their association with the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and its paramilitary wing, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The three people—Stephen King, Michael Plunkett and Plunkett's girlfriend, Mary Reid—were arrested in an apartment (inhabited by Plunkett, Reid and their child) on the Rue Diderot in Vincennes, in which three handguns and a small amount of explosive were found. The three suspects were charged on 30 August, and consistently claimed throughout the investigation that they did not possess the arms and explosives seized, and that they had not been present during the search, leading them to suspect that the weapons had been planted by the gendarmes.

...
Wikipedia