(Ottawa) A human rights coalition says Canada must draw the line and refuse to re-extradite Hassan Diab, the former uOttawa professor France suspects is the origin of a bomb attack in a synagogue in Paris in 1980.
Updated yesterday at 8:41 p.m.
“Canada must, at a minimum, make it clear to the French authorities that a second request for the extradition of Dr.r Diab will be denied,” said former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Alex Neve, now a professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
Although France has not yet made this request, the committee defending Mr. Diab believes that it could come eventually. French justice has set a trial date to hear the case on April 3, 2023, five years after the former professor was released from a French prison.
“He was detained for three years and there was no process [judiciaire] leveled against him, there were no charges against him, Mr. Neve recalled. He has been held in solitary confinement and our concern is that prolonged solitary confinement like this contravenes international standards. »
Arrested in Canada in 2008, Mr. Diab was extradited to France for the first time in 2014 before being released in 2018 after the court rejected the evidence that French prosecutors had presented against him. He always maintained his innocence. He is suspected by the French government of being behind the attack on rue Copernic in Paris on October 3, 1980, which killed four people and injured around forty.
Two French judges were notably able to confirm Mr. Diab’s alibi, that he was in Lebanon at the time of the attack to take exams at the university. The French Court of Appeal did not accept these testimonies and reversed the decision of these judges. A final appeal to the Court of Cassation did not save him from a new trial.
“It shows that political expediency and the need to find a scapegoat for the attack are more important than justice,” said the representative of the Hassan Diab support committee, Jo Wood. The families of the victims and other pressure groups had indeed opposed his release.
The sixty-year-old sociology professor has not worked at the University of Ottawa since 2008. He is now a lecturer at Carleton University.
Federal Justice Minister David Lametti’s office is well aware of the French court’s decision to hold a trial over Mr. Diab’s alleged involvement in the synagogue bombing, but is limiting its comments.
“It would be inappropriate to speculate on possible extradition requests for Dr.r Diab to France, said the minister’s press secretary, Chantalle Aubertin, in the evening. Canada is a country of law where extraditions are guided by the Extradition Act, international treaties and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. »
She added that the need for changes to the law “remains unclear,” but that conversations continue with key stakeholders in the field and Canada’s international partners.