On April 21, 2023, the nightmare that Dr. Hassan Diab and his family have endured for over 15 years was prolonged further by the guilty verdict produced by an unfair trial at the Court of Assize in Paris. The Court ignored all exonerating evidence (including Hassan’s alibis and the fact that his fingerprints and palm prints do not match those of the suspect), and relied on discredited and unfounded allegations.

Hassan’s lawyer in France remarked that after 43 years “the Court is clinging on to Hassan Diab because of the judges’ fear to be accused of laxity in finding those responsible for the 1980 attack.”

Donald Bayne, Hassan Diab’s Canadian lawyer, called it a “political trial” and remarked that “the victims deserve a trial. What they don’t deserve is a scapegoat or a miscarriage of justice.”

Read our latest media advisory:

https://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DIAB-media-statement-2023-04-21.pdf

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Urgent Action: Phone Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Urging Him to Protect Hassan Diab

Please take a few minutes to telephone Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and urge him to protect Dr. Hassan Diab and refuse any request from France for his extradition.

Here is the KEY MESSAGE we want to communicate to the Prime Minister:

“I am horrified that the baseless and shameful trial of Hassan Diab in Paris found Dr. Diab guilty. No new evidence was presented at the trial. The Court ignored all exonerating evidence, and relied on discredited and unfounded allegations. Canada must protect Hassan Diab and say NO to any request from France for his extradition.”

Here is PM Trudeau’s contact information:

      Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
      Hill Office – House of Commons:
      Phone: 1 (613) 992-4211

      Constituency Office (Montreal, Quebec):
      Phone: 1 (514) 277-6020

When you call, you will probably be transferred to leave your message on an answering machine. Please, leave a polite message, and say your name, town/province, and phone number.

Here are some additional things you may wish to say:

• I am very concerned that France is scapegoating Hassan Diab for a crime he did not commit.
• The evidence proves that Hassan is innocent.
• The government has a moral obligation to protect Hassan.
• Hassan and his family have suffered long enough.
• Amnesty International has called on the French authorities to drop the case against Hassan.
• In 2018, Hassan was released after two French investigative judges determined that there was no evidence linking him to the attack.
• Honour the words you said in 2018: “What happened to Hassan Diab never should have happened”, and make sure that it never happens again.

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Hassan Diab Reacts after Paris Court of Assize Finds Him Guilty

Watch CBC Power and Politics interview with Dr. Hassan Diab:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2196715075561 (12-minute video)

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Op-Ed: Canada Must Put a Stop to Injustice in the Hassan Diab Case Once and For All

By Alex Neve and Robert J. Currie, Globe and Mail, April 21, 2023:

“At every step of a Kafkaesque 15-year journey through the Canadian and French legal systems, Hassan Diab and his family have needed to believe that justice would ultimately prevail. Sadly, that hope has been shattered.

Friday’s [April 21, 2023] decision from the French Special Assize Court, which found Mr. Diab guilty in absentia of a horrific synagogue bombing in Paris despite overwhelming evidence that he was not in France at the time, is the latest surreal instalment. It is an indictment of the French justice system that the crime has remained unresolved ever since the devastating terrorist attack at the Rue Copernic synagogue killed four people and injured 46 others on Oct. 3, 1980. But justice is not served by scapegoating…

Evidence and rules of criminal procedure that would never be allowed in a Canadian courtroom have carried the day. There is little doubt that the resulting conviction is profoundly, scandalously unsound. And now, Canada awaits an anticipated second extradition request from France, which could be sent to court and result in yet another protracted extradition process – a torment that would be unbearable for Mr. Diab and his family.

But federal Justice Minister David Lametti can rescue Mr. Diab from this maze of injustice once and for all. He must make it clear to the French government that Canada will no longer be complicit in this travesty, and that under no circumstances will any further extradition request be granted.

In Canadian law, the decision to proceed with the extradition or not is entirely at the minister’s discretion. Discretion should, surely, always serve justice. And so justice means Canada must say no to France.”

Read the full Op-Ed:

https://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/globe-and-mail-2023-04-23.pdf

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

Dear Friends and Supporters,

On April 21, 2023, the nightmare that Dr. Hassan Diab and his family have endured for over 15 years was prolonged further by the guilty verdict produced by an unfair trial at the Court of Assize in Paris. The Court ignored all exonerating evidence, including Hassan’s alibi and the fact that his fingerprints and palm prints do not match those of the suspect.

Hassan’s lawyer in France remarked that after 43 years “the Court is clinging on to Hassan Diab because of the judges’ fear to be accused of laxity in finding those responsible for the 1980 attack.”

Donald Bayne, Hassan Diab’s Canadian lawyer, called it a “political trial” and remarked that “the victims deserve a trial. What they don’t deserve is a scapegoat or a miscarriage of justice.”

In this political, Kafkaesque trial at the Court of Assize in Paris:

• No new evidence was presented.
• Anonymous and unsourced secret intelligence was reintroduced.
• Handwriting reports by prosecution ‘experts’, originally rejected and withdrawn as totally unreliable, were allowed back (sometimes with ‘new’ conclusions).
• Journalists who were not witnesses to the events were called to give their ‘expert’ opinions.
• There are no official transcripts or recordings of the proceedings.
• A verdict was given in less than a day following the end of the trial.
• There is no appeal possible following an in absentia

Civil parties, such as families of victims and intervening associations, were given legal standing and invited to testify during the trial about the emotional impact. Civil parties also had their own lawyers during the proceedings, and they cross-examined witnesses and made closing arguments. This has infused the trial with strong emotions making it hard to assess the evidence objectively.

Twelve years ago, when reaching his decision to extradite Dr. Diab (June 6, 2011), Justice Robert Maranger described the ‘evidence’ provided by France as “replete with seemingly disconnected information” and containing “a great deal of argument, hypothesis, conjecture, and references to information received, without describing the source of that information or the circumstances upon which it was received”. Justice Maranger gave no weight to virtually all components of France’s case: “The passport, the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) membership, the eyewitness descriptions, and the composite sketches/photographs, whether taken individually or viewed as a whole, would not be sufficient to justify committing Mr. Diab to trial in the Republic of France.”

In summing up, Justice Maranger wrote that France had presented “a weak case” and that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial, seem unlikely”.

Dr. Diab’s trial of the past three weeks has been a damning demonstration of the legitimacy of Justice Maranger’s misgivings and his disquiet at believing that Canada’s Extradition Act gave him no choice but to order Dr. Diab’s extradition. The pain and cruelty that followed are now well known: Dr. Diab spent over three years languishing in a French prison, mostly in solitary confinement, separated from his wife and children, and living with terrifying uncertainty about his future.

When the two French anti-terrorist investigative judges (Jean-Marc Herbaut and Richard Foltzer) concluded their thorough examination of all evidence and relevant witnesses, they determined that there was no evidence on which to base a trial and ordered Hassan’s immediate release (January 2018).

All the so-called ‘evidence’, presented by France to justify Hassan’s extradition on November 14, 2014, had been withdrawn, discredited, or rejected. The crucial alibi evidence, that he was in Beirut at the time of the bomb attack, was unambiguous and was accepted as such by the investigative judges. It was confirmed in official documents provided by the Lebanese University in Beirut and in witness statements taken from several students who were Hassan’s contemporaries.

Prime Minister Trudeau, commenting publicly a few months after Dr. Diab’s release and return to Canada, noted that “what happened to Hassan Diab never should have happened” and promised to “make sure that this never happens again.” (June 18, 2018). Canada’s Extradition Act failed abysmally to protect a Canadian citizen.

The time is now for Canada to make the Prime Minister’s commitment a reality. Canada must make it absolutely clear that no second request for the extradition of Dr. Diab will be accepted. There must be no further miscarriage of justice!

“ Amnesty International is calling on the French Public Prosecutor for Anti-Terrorism to drop the groundless charges against Dr. Hassan Diab, more than 14 years since the effort began to convict him for the bomb attack at the rue Copernic synagogue in Paris on 3 October 1980 which killed four people and injured more than 40 others.

Amnesty International continues to call for the individuals responsible for this horrific antisemitic attack to be brought to justice. Justice does not, however, come by pursuing a man against whom both the Canadian and French justice systems have already found there to be a lack of credible evidence.”

Read the full statement by Amnesty International, issued on March 15, 2023:

• France: Hassan Diab prosecution undermines justice for victims of 1980 synagogue attack
• France: La reprise des poursuites infondées et entachées d’irrégularités contre Hassan Diab compromet l’efficacité de la justice pour les victimes de l’attentat de 1980 contre une synagogue

CBC Power and Politics, April 4, 2023: More than five years after he was set free due to a lack of evidence, Hassan Diab went on trial in absentia in France in connection with a bombing outside a Paris synagogue 40 years ago. His Canadian lawyer, Donald Bayne calls it a “political trial” and worries it could lead to a wrongful conviction. (Video – 10 minutes)

This week, April 3–7, please take a few minutes to telephone Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and urge him to protect Dr. Hassan Diab and refuse any future request from France for Hassan’s extradition.

The baseless and shameful trial in absentia of Hassan Diab opened in a Paris court today, Monday April 3, 2023. This wrongful prosecution is a clear distortion of justice and confirms the French authorities’ obsession with finding Hassan guilty of the horrendous bomb attack that took place outside a Paris synagogue over 42 years ago.

Here is PM Trudeau’s contact information:

      Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
      Hill Office – House of Commons:
      Phone: 1 (613) 992-4211

      Constituency Office (Montreal, Quebec):
      Phone: 1 (514) 277-6020

When you call, you will probably be transferred to leave your message on an answering machine. Please, leave a polite message, and say your name, town/province, and phone number.

Here is the KEY MESSAGE we want to communicate to the Prime Minister: “Canada must protect Hassan Diab and say NO to any future request from France for his extradition.”

Here are some additional things you may wish to say:

• I am very concerned that France is scapegoating Hassan Diab for a crime he did not commit.
• France has the wrong man—and they know it.
• Hassan is innocent.
• The government has a moral obligation to protect Hassan.
• Hassan and his family have suffered long enough.
• Amnesty International has called on the French authorities to drop the case against Hassan.
• In 2018, Hassan was released after two French investigative judges determined that there was no evidence linking him to the attack.
• Honour the words you said in 2018: “What happened to Hassan Diab never should have happened”, and make sure that it never happens again.
• Hassan is being subjected to a trial in absentia that is an offence against international law and a breach of human rights.

Thank you for your support!