June 6, 2022
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Please sign the petition calling upon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Government of Canada to: (a) Put an end to the continuing miscarriage of justice that Hassan Diab is facing, and (b) Refuse any future request for Hassan Diab’s extradition.
Petition in English: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/pm-trudeau-protect-hassan-diab-from-further-injustice-say-no-to-another-extradition
Pétition en français: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/pm-trudeau-protegez-hassan-diab-de-toute-nouvelle-injustice-dites-non-a-une-deuxieme-extradition
(Please sign either the English or French version of the petition.)
Exactly 11 years ago, on June 6, 2011, the Canadian extradition judge, Justice Robert Maranger, committed Dr. Hassan Diab for extradition to France. His decision was based solely on deeply flawed handwriting evidence which he described as “convoluted”, “very confusing”, and “with conclusions that are suspect”. Justice Maranger noted that Canada’s extradition law, with its very weak protections, left him no choice but to commit Hassan for extradition.
Hassan was extradited to France in November 2014 and was held for more than three years in a prison near Paris while the investigation into the 1980 Rue Copernic bombing continued. In January of 2018, two French investigative judges determined that there was no evidence linking Hassan to the bombing, and he was released unconditionally and returned to Canada.
In June 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated: “I think, for Hassan Diab, we have to recognize first of all that what happened to him never should have happened […] and make sure that it never happens again.”
However, due to political pressure, French prosecutors appealed Hassan’s release, and despite a wealth of evidence exonerating him, France’s bizarrely unjust and Kafkaesque prosecution continues. In a decision that shocks the conscience, the French judiciary set an April 2023 date for the trial of Hassan, more than five years after he was cleared of all accusations and freed without conditions by French investigative judges. Hassan’s nightmare has returned as he now faces the danger of being extradited yet again to France for a crime he did not commit.
PLEASE sign the English or French version of the petition, and share it widely with family, friends, and your networks. We need a groundswell of support to protect Hassan from a SECOND wrongful extradition!
Video on Canada’s Broken Extradition Law by ICLMG: Canada Must Reform Its Extradition Law Now!
Canada’s extradition system is broken. It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Hassan Diab and many others. It needs to be reformed now.
Please watch — and share — the new video from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) summarizing the issues with the Extradition Act, using Hassan Diab’s case as a frame, and presenting the recommendations of the Halifax Proposals to reform what Gary Botting — one of the country’s leading authorities on extradition law — has called: “the least fair law in Canada”.
https://iclmg.ca/video-reform-extradition
“Unfinished Business: The Hassan Diab Affair Continues” by Michelle Weinroth
“Many in Ottawa may remember the day he returned to Canada from France. A crowd of longstanding supporters, his wife, and little children received him with open arms and crimson flowers. It was a euphoric moment. Dr. Hassan Diab, the man who was falsely accused of carrying out the 1980 bombing of the Paris synagogue on rue Copernic, who was wrongly extradited in 2014 on the basis of an egregiously flawed handwriting analysis, and who spent more than three years in solitary confinement without charge or formal trial, was finally released on January 12, 2018, from France’s Fleury-Mérogis Prison.
Two French investigative judges, Jean-Marc Herbaut and Richard Foltzer, had studied Diab’s case meticulously over several years (the former even made a trip to Lebanon to interview eye witnesses), and finally declared, ‘There is no evidence to indicate, or even imply, that … investigations will enable [the gathering of] further incriminating evidence against him.’”
Please read — and share — the full article By Michelle Weinroth, published in The Bullet on May 11, 2022:
https://socialistproject.ca/2022/05/unfinished-business-the-hassan-diab-affair-continues
Recent Webinar on Extradition: “The least fair law in Canada”: Why the Extradition Act must be reformed”
On April 12, 2022, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) hosted a webinar on extradition titled: “Canada’s Least Fair Law: Why the Extradition Act must be reformed”, featuring prominent experts on the subject.
The webinar gives a very good summary of the problems in Canada’s extradition process, why we must act now to fix this broken system, and a new blueprint, known as the Halifax Proposals, for how to make it happen.
A recording of the webinar is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQYX73CSfOc
Thank you for your continued support!
Hassan Diab Support Committee
Web: http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org
Email: diabsupport@gmail.com
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/justiceforhassandiab
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JusticeforHDiab
Twitter: https://twitter.com/justiceforhdiab
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