Why is a Canadian Professor still in a French jail?
What can we do about it?

Hear:	Don Bayne (Hassan’s Canadian lawyer) and Hasan Alam (of Critical Muslim Voices) speak about the 8-year nightmare of Hassan Diab.
View:	The short documentary, “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”
Time:	Wednesday, April 5, 2017, at 7:00 PM
Place:	Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, Combined Peter and Alma Room, 350 W. Georgia St, Vancouver, BC — Map

Event sponsored by:

• British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)
• Hassan Diab Support Committee (Vancouver)

Endorsed by:

• Canadian Association of University Teachers
• Critical Muslim Voices
• Independent Jewish Voices
• Vancouver Muslim Community Centre Society

RSVP here: https://bccla.org/events/2017/03/justice-hassan-diab
Note: This is a free and public event. No ticket required. However, RSVPs are requested for event logistics.

Background:

Hassan Diab, a sociology professor at the University of Ottawa, was arrested in 2008 in connection with the deadly bombing of a Paris synagogue that occurred 28 years prior in 1980.

After 6 years of imprisonment and house arrest in Canada, Mr. Diab was extradited to France in 2014. Because of France’s documented history of using torture evidence in anti-terrorism investigations and trials, human rights and civil liberties groups – including the BCCLA – opposed the unconditional extradition given concerns that if delivered to France, Dr. Diab – a Canadian citizen – may face trial based on evidence potentially derived from torture.

The Canadian judge who extradited Hassan Diab described the French case as “weak” and concluded that a conviction was unlikely if tried in a Canadian court. France’s new anti-terrorism laws permit courts to rely on secret “intelligence,” whose contents or sources have never been disclosed to Mr. Diab.

Since his jailing, French investigative judges recommended that he be released on bail, saying there was reliable evidence that he was not in Paris at the time of the bombing. An appeal panel over-turned these recommendations saying that Diab’s release would be a ” threat” to “public order”.

Don Bayne, a leading criminal defence lawyer, said Mr. Diab, a Muslim Canadian, is Canada’s Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew wrongly accused during a strongly anti-Semitic time.

It has now been more than two years that Mr. Diab has been held in pre-trial detention in France. We are calling on the Government of Canada to raise Mr. Diab’s case with the French authorities. We have the gravest concern that this case represents a profound miscarriage of justice and the time to act is long overdue.

If you are Canadian citizen or resident, please sign the e-petition calling upon the Government of Canada to work towards the immediate granting of bail to Hassan Diab and securing his urgent return to his family and home in Canada!

Dear Friends,

We have launched an e-petition calling upon the Government of Canada to work towards the immediate granting of bail to Dr. Hassan Diab and securing his urgent return to his family and home in Canada.

https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-833

If you are a Canadian citizen or resident of Canada, please sign the e-petition as this would send a strong message that Canadians care and want their government to act. Only the Clerk of Petitions at Parliament would have access to your information. Your personal information will not be made public.

Hassan was extradited from Canada to France more than two years ago. Since then, he has been ordered released on bail four times by two different French judges. The French investigative judge found that there is “consistent evidence” that Hassan is innocent. However, each time the prosecutor has appealed and the same court of appeal judges has overturned Hassan’s release because of the political climate in France. Hassan has been on very strict bail conditions or imprisoned for over eight years despite documented evidence showing that he is innocent.

Please share this e-petitiont widely and help us get the Canadian government to intervene to put an end to the plight of Hassan and his family!

Thank you.

Hassan Diab Support Committee
Email: diabsupport@gmail.com
Web: http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org

Documentary directed by Amar Wala and edited by Andrea Conte

The documentary, “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”, shows the impact of Hassan’s ordeal on his family. Hassan’s supporters and his Canadian lawyer, Don Bayne, talk about the miscarriage of justice and the risk of wrongful conviction.

* * *Dr. Hassan Diab is a Canadian academic who was extradited from Canada to France in 2014 in a case widely viewed as a wrongful conviction in the making. Since then, he has been imprisoned in France in a segregated unit, with only two hours per day out of his cell.

Dr. Diab was extradited based solely on a widely discredited handwriting report that the Canadian extradition judge described as “illogical”, “very problematic”, “convoluted” and “suspect”, even though Dr. Diab’s fingerprints, palm prints and physical description do not match those of the suspect. The case is anchored on secret, anonymous “intelligence” allegations, possibly gleaned from torture.

The Canadian extradition judge noted that the low threshold for evidence under Canada’s extradition law compelled him to order Dr. Diab’s extradition.

In 2016, a French investigative judge found “consistent evidence” supporting Dr. Diab’s innocence, concluding that he could not have been in Paris at the time of the 1980 bombing for which he is under investigation.

In May and again in October 2016, the French investigative judge ordered Dr. Diab’s release on bail, finding no grounds for his further detention. The French Court of Appeal overturned the release orders due to the political climate in France, and Dr. Diab remains imprisoned to this day.

Join us for TWO events in Kingston, Ontario, on Wednesday March 8, 2017.
Both events are FREE and open to the public.

• First event is at Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room B201, Queen’s University, Kingston, at 12:00 noon. Donald Bayne (Hassan’s lawyer, renowned criminal law advocate, and former Queen’s U. Gaels quarterback) will tell us about the case of Dr. Hassan Diab. See poster.
• Second event is at Unitarian Place, 206 Concession St., Kingston, at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:40 pm). We will be showing the short documentary “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”, followed by an info session led by Donald Bayne. Complimentary light refreshments will be served. See poster.

* * *
Recent Articles on Dr. Hassan Diab’s Case:

• “No evidence? No problem. – What Hassan Diab’s extradition and imprisonment in France tells us about Canada’s casual relationship with the rule of law”, by Matthew Behrens, March/April 2017 issue of The CCPA Monitor.
• “Hassan Diab supporters fear changing political climate could hurt chances of fair trial”, by Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen, February 18, 2017.

“[Hassan Diab] was extradited to France despite Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger expressing grave concerns the evidence presented against Diab was ‘convoluted and confusing (with) suspect conclusions’.

French prosecutors continue to rely on that evidence, and an order that would have freed Diab on bail was recently overturned, sending the Ottawa academic back to his Paris jail cell despite the opinion of a French judge who ordered bail after investigating the case and finding “consistent evidence” that Diab is telling the truth, that he was not in France at the time of the bombing that killed four and wounded more that 40 others.

Now, fearing the implications a changing global political climate may have on the case, the Justice for Hassan Diab group hopes the Canadian government will apply whatever necessary pressure to ensure Diab’s right to fair judicial process…”

Read the full Ottawa Citizen article:

• “Hassan Diab supporters fear changing political climate could hurt chances of fair trial”, by Aedan Helmer, February 18, 2017

In a highly positive development for Dr. Hassan Diab, a French investigative judge (juge d’instruction) found “consistent evidence” supporting Hassan’s innocence. Hassan has been in pre-trial detention in France since he was extradited from Canada two years ago today for investigation into a 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue.

“At this stage of the inquiry, there exists consistent evidence tending to establish that Hassan Diab was in Beirut late September, early October 1980… this calls into question information implicating him in the attack since this relies on his presence in France during this period”, wrote the French investigative judge in an order released on October 27, 2016.

The judge immediately ordered the release of Dr. Diab on bail. He issued a second order on the same day stating that there are no grounds for further detention of Hassan.

But, in a deeply disappointing move, the prosecutor blocked Hassan’s release, and the Court of Appeal overruled the investigative judge’s orders and renewed Hassan’s detention. Hassan’s lawyers filed an appeal to France’s Court of Cassation.

William Bourdon, Hassan’s lawyer in France, noted that “Hassan Diab’s situation is unprecedented. New consistent evidence of his innocence was collected but the Court of Appeal refused, for the 4th time, to release him, even though the investigative judge decided so. After 36 years and since no one else was indicted, the Court of Appeal is clinging on to Hassan Diab. He is detained because of the judges’ fear to be accused of laxity in the context of today’s fight against terrorism in France. Such a situation would be inconceivable in an ordinary-law procedure.”

Earlier this year, in May 2016, Hassan was ordered released on bail by the investigative judge and the judge of freedom and detention. He spent ten days out on bail in Paris before his release order was overturned by the same panel of Court of Appeal judges which has repeatedly denied him bail.

Don Bayne, Hassan’s lawyer in Canada, commented on the significant development stating that “Dr. Diab’s case is a tragic example of the serious flaws in Canada’s extradition laws and practices. The courts in Canada at every level failed the basic test of fundamental justice that the evidence on which the foreign state relies to deprive a Canadian of his or her liberty be ‘reliable’. The evidence in Dr. Diab’s case was shown to be so unreliable (flawed handwriting comparisons said to be worthless by the world’s leading handwriting experts, plus secret intelligence which is not evidence at all) that this innocent Canadian never should have been extradited. Yet he was, and despite even more evidence of Dr. Diab’s innocence, he remains locked up in a French prison on a path to a manifestly wrongful conviction.”

Hassan was extradited from Canada based on extremely contested and weak evidence. Justice Maranger, the Canadian extradition judge, stated that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”, but said his interpretation of Canada’s extradition law left him no choice but to commit Hassan to extradition.

Michael Vonn, Policy Director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, one of the interveners during the appeal of Hassan’s extradition at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, remarked on two years of pretrial detention for Hassan, saying “The Government of Canada must act to raise Mr. Diab’s case with the French authorities. We have the gravest concern that this case represents a profound miscarriage of justice and the time to act is long overdue.”

Sukanya Pillay, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, another intervener on Hassan’s side at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, expressed concern that, “Mr. Diab has spent two years already in a French prison, was extradited on the basis of what appeared to be manifestly unreliable evidence, and has accordingly experienced a deprivation of fair process and an injustice to him and his family.”

See articles:

• “‘Consistent evidence’ suggests Ottawa academic did not commit 1980 terrorist bombing, French judge says”, by Chris Cobb, Ottawa Citizen, November 13, 2016
• “Trudeau Must Call For The Release Of Hassan Diab”, by Tyler Levitan, Huffington Post, November 18, 2016

Come learn about the case of Dr. Hassan Diab, a Carleton University professor who was extradited from Canada to France where he faces the prospect of a wrongful conviction. A screening of the short documentary “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story” will be followed by a discussion with three of Hassan’s colleagues from Carleton University.

What: “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”, followed by discussion
When: Friday November 11, 2016, 6:00 PM
Where: Carleton University, Minto Centre 5050, Ottawa — Map

The event is free and open to the public. The space is wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments will be provided.

For parking, see: http://carleton.ca/parking/wp-content/uploads/parking-map-2015.pdf. On this map the Minto Centre is building 27, and is located adjacent to a bus stop and across from the O-Train station.

This event is sponsored by OPIRG-Carleton, the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project, the Department of Anthropology/Sociology, the Department of Law and Legal Studies and the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Hassan Diab is a Canadian citizen and Carleton University professor who lived in Ottawa, Canada. He was extradited to France on November 14, 2014, in connection with the 1980 rue Copernic synagogue bombing in Paris.

The Canadian extradition judge described the evidence that the French authorities submitted as “very problematic” and “suspect”, and stated that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”. Still, the judge said that he felt obliged under Canada’s extradition law to commit Hassan to extradition. As a result, Hassan may be wrongfully convicted under France’s anti-terrorism laws, based on deeply flawed handwriting analysis and the use of secret, unsourced intelligence.

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Join the Bring Hassan Home Campaign by signing the following statement.

“Dr. Hassan Diab was extradited from Canada to France based on a handwriting analysis report that the Canadian extradition judge described as “convoluted, very confusing, with conclusions that are suspect”. Hassan is now incarcerated in a French prison where he may remain for two or more years while the French authorities decide whether to bring him to trial. I am deeply concerned that Hassan may be wrongfully convicted under France’s anti-terrorism laws, based on deeply flawed handwriting analysis and the use of secret, unsourced intelligence. Hassan must receive a fair process, so he has a real chance to fight for justice and return to his home in Canada. We must make sure that the real perpetrators of the rue Copernic crime are brought to justice. Making an innocent man pay for a crime he did not commit will only further the tragedy.”

To sign the above statement, please fill out the form at:
http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/bring-hassan-home

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Also, please write to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Stéphane Dion, and Minister of Justice, Ms. Jody Wilson-Raybould, urging them to speak with their French counterparts about bringing Hassan home. A sample letter is available at http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/help (look under “WRITE”).

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“Recipe for a wrongful conviction: The extradition of an innocent man – Hassan Diab”

Don’t miss a preview of the short documentary on Dr. Hassan Diab, “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”.

What:	Preview of “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”, a short documentary on Dr. Hassan Diab
Place:	Beit Zatoun Cultural Centre, 612 Markham Street, Toronto — Map
Date:	Friday, September 30, 2016
Time:	7:00 pm (Doors open at 6:45 pm)
Admission:	Free

Guest Speakers:

• Amar Wala, award-winning filmmaker and director of “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”
• Barbara Jackman, renowned human rights lawyer

Please come out, watch the short documentary, and hear our guest speakers talk about the documentary and Canada’s unjust Extradition Law. Q&A will follow.

There will be refreshments, plenty of yummy finger foods, music, raffle items, and more!

Sponsored by:

• Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT)
• Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)
• Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1281
• Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice (CUSJ)
• Independent Jewish Voices Canada
• Independent Jewish Voices – Toronto
• Peace and Social Concerns – Ottawa Quakers
• Toronto Action for Social Change (TASC)
• United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO)

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Hassan Diab is a Canadian citizen and Carleton University professor who lived in Ottawa. He was extradited to France on November 14, 2014, in connection with the 1980 Rue Copernic bombing in Paris.

The Canadian extradition judge described the evidence that the French authorities submitted as “very problematic” and “suspect”, and stated that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”. However, the judge said that he felt obliged under Canada’s extradition law to commit Hassan to extradition.

Hassan has strongly condemned the attack and steadfastly maintained his innocence. He has been in prison near Paris for almost two years.

Mr. Don Bayne, Hassan’s lawyer in Canada, has stated: “We now have the classic recipe for the wrongful conviction of a Canadian citizen”.

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Some links of interest:

• “Jewish Law and Our Most Cherished Traditions Require Justice for Hassan Diab”, by: David Mivasair, July 5, 2016
• “Canada must demand fair investigation by France in case of Hassan Diab”, by Gerald Caplan, Globe and Mail, November 9, 2015
• “Civil society must prevent Hassan Diab’s wrongful conviction”, by Tyler Levitan, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, May 27, 2015
• “Canada’s extradition law: A legal conundrum”, by Chris Cobb, Ottawa Citizen, November 14, 2014

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Hassan Diab Support Committee
Email: diabsupport@gmail.com
Facebook | Twitter

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) wrote a letter the Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Honourable Stéphane Dion, and the Minister of Justice,
The Honorable Jody Wilson-Raybould, urging them to intervene in the case of Dr. Hassan Diab.

“[W]e join many other Canadians in writing to you at this time to ask you to raise Dr. Diab’s case with the French authorities at the
earliest possible opportunity. We believe that the use of the deeply flawed and unreliable evidence against Dr. Diab cannot constitute a
fair legal process and that the Government of Canada must act to protect the fundamental rights that are at stake in this matter.”

Click here to read the full BCCLA letter to the Ministers.