[2][3] The bomb exploded inside a suitcase at the Turkish Airlines check-in desk in the airport's south terminal, sending flames through the crowd of passengers checking in for a flight to Istanbul.
The bomb consisted of a half kilogram of Semtex plastic explosives connected to three portable gas bottles (which caused the extensive burns on the victims).
[14] French police detained 29-year-old Varoujan Garabedian (Varadjian Garbidjian), a Syrian national of Armenian extraction, who confessed to planting the bomb at the airport.
The bomb was intended to explode aboard a Turkish Airways plane en route from Paris to Istanbul, but it detonated prematurely on a baggage ramp.
[17] In Marseilles, police later arrested another Turkish citizen of Armenian extraction, 22 years old Nayir Soner, an electronics specialist who was suspected of assembling the bomb.
During an 11-day jury trial in suburban Créteil, Garabedian, defended by Jacques Vergès, denied his earlier confession, (though he admitted his role in the bombing in a 2008 interview[21]).
Several Turkish scholars – Sina Aksin, Türkkaya Ataöv, Avedis Simon Hacinlyian, Hasan Köni, Mümtaz Soysal – testified for the prosecution during the trial.
[citation needed] In 1995, over 1 million people in Armenia signed a petition to the authorities in France calling for the release of Garabedian from prison.