Join the Crowdfunding Campaign for the Hassan Diab Documentary Project

November 21, 2015

Dear friends and supporters,

We’re nearly halfway to our goal to raise CAD $15,000 for the Hassan Diab Documentary Project. A big THANK YOU to all 75 supporters who have contributed so far!

Please visit our crowdfunding page and help us reach our goal by contributing any amount you can afford.

http://igg.me/at/diab-doc-2015

Also, please help publicise the crowdfunding campaign and share it with your family and friends.

With your help, we will tell Hassan’s story and demonstrate the truth of his innocence. Having his story told will help Hassan endure the legal and emotional saga that has become the story of his life.

BACKGROUND

On November 13, 2015, Canadian citizen Hassan Diab marked one year in a prison near Paris. As you read this, Hassan waits for a French investigating magistrate to decide Hassan’s fate in a case that all but collapsed in Canada. We fought hard and nearly won in Canada, even under extradition rules designed to favor foreign states at the expense of citizens’ rights.

November 13 also marks exactly seven years since Dr. Diab’s arrest in Ottawa in 2008, and the start of a legal odyssey and Kafkaesque journey that has seen ever-greater restrictions on Hassan’s rights and freedoms.

In June 2011, after one of the most highly contested extradition cases in Canadian history, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger reluctantly signed the order for Hassan’s extradition, declaring the case “very problematic”, “convoluted”, and “very confusing”.  Hassan’s case would not pass muster under Canadian criminal law. In the judge’s own words, “the case presented by the Republic of France against Mr. Diab is a weak case; the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely.”

Despite the lack of evidence linking Hassan to the attack that killed four and wounded dozens outside a synagogue on rue Copernic in Paris more than 35 years ago, Hassan remains imprisoned in pretrial detention in France. He may remain in prison for two or more years while the investigating magistrate decides whether to bring him to trial.

Hassan’s case is based principally on intelligence from unknown sources and obtained under unknown circumstances, coupled with totally flawed handwriting analysis shown by five international experts to exonerate Hassan.

Hassan’s case has given pause to many fair-minded observers, including Globe and Mail commentator Gerald Caplan, who called for Canada to “strongly demand a fair process” in which faulty handwriting analysis and unsourced intelligence withdrawn in Canada should be discarded from the dossier in France.

Hassan faces a highly uncertain future in a world focused on “security”.  In the current atmosphere, we fear that Hassan will be wrongfully convicted.

Please support our crowdfunding campaign for the Hassan Diab Documentary Project and help us tell Hassan’s story!


Hassan Diab Support Committee
Email: diabsupport@gmail.com
Web: http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/justiceforhassandiab
Twitter: http://twitter.com/justiceforhdiab
Blog: http://friendsofhassandiab.blogspot.com


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