FRANCE: A Lebanese-Canadian university professor has been found guilty in absentia of a deadly bomb attack on a Paris synagogue more than 40 years ago that resulted in four deaths and 46 injuries.
Hassan Diab, 69, the only individual to have been charged in relation to the bombing outside the Copernic synagogue in 1980, where more than 300 people were worshipping, was given a life sentence in his absence, and an arrest warrant was issued for him.
Diab, who has generally avoided media attention during the proceedings, told reporters on Friday that the decision was “Kafkaesque” and “not fair.”
After participating in a vigil with supporters at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument in Ottawa, he stated, “We’d hoped reason would prevail.”
He is still in Canada and skipped the trial in Paris. His defence team claimed he was the victim of identity theft. It is unclear how strained relations between Canada and France would become if a fresh extradition procedure for Diab were to be successful.
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said the nation would “look carefully at next steps” and keep an eye on what the French government decided to do. “We will always be there to stand up for Canadians and their rights,” he stated.
After French authorities freed Diab in 2018, Trudeau declared that Canada would be wary of any future extradition requests. At the time, he said, “I think for Hassan Diab, we have to recognise first of all that what happened to him never should have happened.”
The Canadian Parliament is evaluating a possible overhaul to the present rules surrounding extraction, which critics claim provide little latitude to judges. Within the nation, Diab’s case is frequently viewed as a failure of the present system of extradition rules.
Diab’s attorney, Donald Bayne, referred to the decision as a “political result” and a miscarriage of justice. He said, “The evidence proves he’s innocent, and yet they’ve convicted him.”
During the three-week trial in Paris, there were tense moments where a chair wasn’t set aside for Diab. State anti-terrorist prosecutors requested the maximum prison term, claiming there was “no possible doubt” he was guilty. In order to “avoid a judicial error,” Diab’s defence requested for him to be acquitted.
The bombing was the first lethal attack against the Jewish community of France since the Nazi occupation of the Second World War.
On October 3, 1980, a bomb containing 10 kg of dynamite was left in the saddlebags of a rental motorcycle that was parked outside the synagogue.
The synagogue’s glass roof collapsed during the explosion, injuring many inside who were celebrating Shabbat and the barmitzvahs of three boys and two girls.
The intensity of the explosion caused shopfronts along 150 yards of road to fracture as well as the blowing off of a synagogue entrance.
Three bystanders were killed, and 48 hours later, the hotel concierge who worked across from the synagogue passed away from his wounds in the hospital. The attack was timed to hit people leaving the synagogue, and it was only because the rituals were running 15 minutes behind schedule that a greater catastrophe was prevented.
The attack, which was never claimed by any organisation, was planned by Palestinian nationalists, per a protracted police inquiry.
According to reports, Diab, an Ottawa sociology professor, matched a photo of the alleged bomber. He was detained in Canada in 2008 and extradited to France in 2014. There, he was imprisoned for three years—part of that time in solitary confinement—while he awaited a murder trial.
French authorities claimed that he belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s special operations division, which was thought to be behind the attack.
Each time a judge ordered him freed, it was overruled by the appeals court as there was allegedly insufficient evidence.
Diab was finally freed in 2018 and permitted to return to Canada, but a higher French court ordered him to stand trial in 2021.
The three-week trial in Paris centred in part on the finding of a passport over 20 years after the attack that showed entry and exit to Spain, the location from which a commando was thought to have orchestrated the bombing. The passport was deemed to be “extremely incriminating” by state prosecutors.
Diab’s defence stated that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the then-sociology student was in France at the time. His attorneys claimed that he was taking exams at a university in Lebanon and was unable to use the passport, which he stated he had misplaced.
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