Hassan Diab sentenced in his absence to life imprisonment

A verdict, forty-two years after the facts. Lebanese-Canadian Hassan Diab, 69, was sentenced Friday, April 21 to life imprisonment by the Special Assize Court of Paris, in the case of the attack against the synagogue in rue Copernic in Paris, October 3, 1980. He was tried and sentenced in his absence, because he lives in Canada where he is a lecturer at Carleton University in Ottawa, reports Radio Canada.

This attack shook France in the 1980s, after a bomb exploded in front of the synagogue on rue Copernic, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, killing four and injuring 38. The bomb had been placed in the saddlebags of a motorbike, bought in cash using a false Cypriot passport. Thanks to the witnesses, the investigators had drawn up a robot portrait of the terrorist and followed the trail of a Palestinian organization. In 1999, the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance identified a certain Hassan Diab, living in Canada. Incarcerated, then released, the latter claims to be the victim of a homonym and denounces judicial harassment.

Towards extradition from Canada?

For the Advocates General, there was no doubt that Hassan Diab is indeed the bomber on rue Copernic. This is why they demanded the maximum sentence: life imprisonment, accompanied by an arrest warrant so that the sentence is carried out and that he can be extradited from Canada. On the side of the civil parties, opinions were divided: some were convinced of the guilt of Hassan Diab, who has continued to proclaim his innocence. Others waited for justice to happen, without a spirit of revenge.