Justice Minister Nicholson Must Refuse the Oppressive and Unfair Extradition of Hassan Diab!

Place: Department of Justice, 275 Sparks Street, Ottawa (at Sparks and Kent)

Time: Friday January 20, 2012, at Noon

Bring your signs, banners, and noise-makers!

On Friday January 20, join Hassan Diab’s supporters to deliver a petition to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, signed by over 500 organizations and individuals, demanding that he refuse the extradition of Hassan Diab. Under extradition law, Mr. Nicholson has the discretion to stop extradition proceedings at any point. Moreover, the law obliges Mr. Nicholson to refuse to order an “unjust and oppressive” extradition.

Extraditing Hassan to stand trial in France would be manifestly unjust and oppressive. The allegations against Hassan are based on deeply flawed handwriting analysis and secret intelligence from unknown sources that is replete with major misrepresentations, inaccuracies, and contradictions. Evidence showing Hassan’s innocence (including finger prints and palm prints) was suppressed. An Ontario court which examined the case against Hassan concluded that it was “very problematic”, “very confusing”, “very convoluted” and drew “suspect conclusions”. The court noted that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”. Yet it is on the basis of this “weak” case that Hassan was arrested, has spent over three years in prison or under intrusive conditions, and on which Mr. Nicholson is now considering handing him over to France.

Despite its strong doubts about the case, the Ontario court refused to allow Hassan to meaningfully challenge the evidence, claiming that he would have a chance to do so in France. In fact, even if it were justified to imprison and then turn someone over to a foreign state on the basis of such flimsy evidence (and it clearly is not), it is doubtful that Hassan would have a fair trial under France’s anti-terrorism laws, which Human Rights Watch has denounced for its multiple violations of international human rights standards.

Join us on January 20 to call on Minister Nicholson to:

• Exercise his discretionary power to immediately halt extradition proceedings against Hassan Diab, and act on his legal obligation to refuse unjust and oppressive extraditions;
• Refuse extradition to states that use secret, unsourced intelligence or information that may have been derived from torture as evidence; and
• Reform extradition law to take into account Canada’s human rights obligations, including the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial, the right to disclosure of evidence, and all other due process rights.

If you haven’t done so already, please sign the petition at http://stopextradition.diabpetition.org, and encourage others you know to do so as well, BEFORE January 18.

For more information, contact:
Hassan Diab Support Committee
diabsupport@gmail.com
http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org

Please sign the petition to the Canadian Minister of Justice, Mr. Rob Nicholson, urging him not to extradite Dr. Hassan Diab.

• Petition in English: “A Shock to Our Conscience and an Affront to Liberty”
  http://stopextradition.diabpetition.org

• Pétition en Français: “Un choc pour nos consciences et un affront à la liberté”
  http://stopextradition.diabpetition.org/fr

Since November 2008, Dr. Diab has been fighting extradition to France for his alleged involvement in a bombing in Paris in 1980 – a crime he did not commit. Dr. Diab’s fingerprints do not match those of the suspect. His palm prints do not match. His physical description does not match. Yet, at the end of a lengthy extradition hearing in June 2011, the Canadian judge decided to commit Hassan to extradition based on handwriting analysis that the judge himself described as “problematic”, “very confusing”, and with “conclusions that are suspect”.

In his judgment the judge wrote that while he felt obliged under Ontario’s interpretation of extradition law to commit Diab, he found the French evidence was weak and below the standard necessary to produce a conviction in a Canadian court.

Hassan’s case is a wake-up call for all of us. The standard for extradition is so low that Canada hands people over to other countries based on evidence that would not be accepted in a Canadian court. Moreover, France does not extradite its own citizens, which makes the extradition treaty between Canada and France dangerously unbalanced.

If extradited, Hassan will not receive a fair trial in France’s counter-terrorism courts. These courts place severe limitations on the ability of Hassan’s defence to challenge the handwriting analysis, and allow the use of unsourced secret intelligence that may be the product of torture.

The Canadian Minister of Justice, Mr. Rob Nicholson, has the final decision on whether to extradite Hassan. Please urge the Minister to apply Canadian standards of evidence to extradition cases and not surrender Hassan.

Thanks to all the supporters who came to Hassan Diab’s fundraising dinner in Ottawa on November 26, 2011. The fundraiser was a big success; it brought together people who believe in justice and the presumption of innocence.

The spirit of the fundraiser was captured by the opening remarks of Yahya Abdul Rahman, the MC of the event:

“In the case of Hassan we are reminded of our own vulnerabilities in which the state can wield its power over individuals and toss out all principles of fairness and justice. It is Hassan today but, if the system which has permitted this to happen remains in place, then it could very well be one of us tomorrow.”

Read the full remarks here.

Date: Saturday November 26, 2011
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Place: Carleton Heights Community Center, 1665 Apeldoorn Ave, Ottawa

Dinner tickets are $30 per person, or $80 per family (of four).

Please join us for a delicious multi-course dinner with poetry reading, soft Middle Eastern music, and a silent auction in support of Dr. Hassan Diab.

Dinner includes a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, dessert, juice, soft drinks, coffee, and tea.

How to Purchase or Reserve Tickets

To purchase or reserve tickets, email eiad@kassif.com or call (613) 322-6117.

You can also purchase tickets via Interac e-Transfer to diabsupport@gmail.com. Your tickets will be available for pickup at the event. Here is a summary of the steps:

1. Log in to your on-line banking and navigate to “Interac e-Transfer”.
2. Fill in the form for sending money. Specify diabsupport@gmail.com as the email address. Ask a security question that we can answer, such as “What is Hassan’s family name”. Include your name in the Message field. Then click “Send”.

Background

On June 6, 2011, an Ontario judge committed Hassan for extradition based on a French handwriting analysis report that alleges similarities between Hassan’s handwriting and five words appearing on a Paris hotel registration card in 1980. The judge described the French report as “very problematic”, “very convoluted”, “very confusing”, “pseudo-science”, and “with conclusions that are suspect”.

Canada’s extradition law allows foreign countries to seize any Canadian citizen based on a mere summary of the allegations. The foreign state can cherry-pick its case and suppress exonerating evidence. Hassan’s palm and finger prints do not match those of the suspect, yet this information was suppressed from the Record of the Case. The extradition court must treat the foreign state’s evidence as presumptively reliable, and the burden is placed on the accused to prove that the case is “manifestly unreliable”. In practice, however, it is almost impossible to demonstrate “manifest unreliability”.

Hassan is in a Catch-22 situation. In Canada, the “evidence” used against him is presumed reliable, even though it does not meet Canadian standards of evidence. At trial in France, defence evidence will not receive full and fair consideration, because it was furnished by the defence rather than by the investigating magistrate.

We must demand that Canadian standards of evidence apply to extradition cases, and that Canada not extradite its citizens to countries that allow secret intelligence — including intelligence obtained from torture — to be used as evidence.

Hassan continues to live under very strict bail conditions and is saddled with hefty legal fees and paying $2,000 per month for the GPS monitoring he is required to wear.

Please help us challenge the fundamental unfairness of Canada’s extradition law and prevent a gross injustice.

Watch Presentation Video (48 minutes)

Watch Q&A Video (51 minutes)

On October 19, 2011, a public lecture about Hassan Diab’s case was held at Carleton University. The speakers were Nathalie Des Rosiers, General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), and Donald Bayne, Hassan’s lawyer. The lecture was moderated by Bill Skidmore, instructor at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (Human Rights) at Carleton University.

The event included a discussion of the following topics:

• Why exonerating evidence was not allowed in court
• How Canada’s extradition law is fundamentally unfair
• Why a fair trial in France is unlikely

This event was sponsored by: The Departments of Law, Sociology and Anthropology and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (Human Rights) at Carleton University; CUPE Local 4600; and the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) sent a letter to the Canadian Minister of Justice, Mr. Robert Nicholson, about the case of Dr. Hassan Diab. The letter urges the Minister to ensure that Canadian citizens are protected against foreign prosecutions relying on evidence derived from torture.

• BCCLA Letter to the Minister of Justice
• BCCLA National Security Blog, “No complicity in torture”

• Write to the Canadian Minister of Justice, Mr. Rob Nicholson (email: rob.nicholson@parl.gc.ca), urging him not to surrender Dr. Hassan Diab. Please share a copy of your letter with diabsupport@gmail.com
  
  • English: Letter to the Minister of Justice (.doc)
  • Français: Lettre à la ministre de la Justice (.doc)
• Donate to Hassan’s legal defence fund and/or pledge $20 or more a month to help cover the cost of Hassan’s GPS monitoring. For information on how to donate, visit:
  
  • http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/donate

Since November 2008, Dr. Diab has been fighting extradition to France for his alleged involvement in a bombing in Paris in 1980 – a crime he did not commit. Dr. Diab’s fingerprints do not match those of the suspect. His palm prints do not match. His physical description does not match. Yet, at the end of a lengthy extradition hearing in June 2011, the Canadian judge decided to commit Hassan to extradition based on handwriting analysis that the judge himself described as “problematic”, “very confusing”, and with “conclusions that are suspect”.

In his judgment the judge wrote that while he felt obliged under Ontario’s interpretation of extradition law to commit Diab, he found the French evidence was weak and below the standard necessary to produce a conviction in a Canadian court.

Hassan’s case is a wake-up call for all of us. The standard for extradition is so low that Canada hands people over to other countries based on evidence that would not be accepted in a Canadian court. Moreover, France does not extradite its own citizens, which makes the extradition treaty between Canada and France dangerously unbalanced.

If extradited, Hassan will not receive a fair trial in France’s counter-terrorism courts. These courts place severe limitations on the ability of Hassan’s defence to challenge the handwriting analysis, and allow the use of unsourced secret intelligence that may be the product of torture.

The Canadian Minister of Justice, Mr. Rob Nicholson, has the final decision on whether to extradite Hassan. We need to urge the Minister to apply Canadian standards of evidence to extradition cases and not surrender Hassan.

For the first time, Dr. Hassan Diab spoke out publically about his Kafkaesque nightmare. Check out his interview with Chris Cobb and the video clip that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen today (see links below).

For over three years, Hassan Diab has endured surveillance, detention, very strict bail conditions, loss of employment, and the depletion of his financial resources. Yet he is determined to fight his extradition to France for a crime he is innocent of.

On June 6, a judge decided to commit Hassan to extradition on the basis of handwriting analysis that the judge himself described as “convoluted”, “very confusing”, and “with conclusions that are suspect”. The judge wrote that he felt obliged under Ontario’s interpretation of Canada’s extradition law to commit Hassan.

Later this year, the Canadian Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, will decide whether to surrender Hassan to extradition. In the meantime, Hassan is seeking to appeal his committal order.

‘I know I had nothing to do with this’
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/know+nothing+with+this/5214624/story.html

Exclusive: Hassan Diab speaks
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Exclusive+Hassan+Diab+speaks/5214286/story.html

Video Clip
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Exclusive+Hassan+Diab+speaks/5214286/story.html?tab=VID

“Despite Incredibly ‘Weak Case’, Hassan Diab Forced to Keep Resisting Extradition to France”, by Matthew Behrens

Dr. Hassan Diab is a Canadian university professor fighting for his freedom, and for his life.

The French government wants him to face trial for what they allege is Dr. Diab’s involvement in a 1980 bombing that killed four people. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

There’s a small problem: Dr. Diab’s fingerprints don’t match the suspect’s. His palm prints do not match. The physical description does not match. The handwriting does not match. Allegations against him have been found “weak”, “suspect,” and “confusing” by a Canadian judge; that same judge concluded June 6 that “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.”

With such a strong defence, one would think Dr. Diab would be breathing easy. Instead, he is strapped to a GPS monitoring bracelet for which he must pay $2,000 a month (a new version of the Dickensian debtors’ prison, in which your freedom is now dependent on your ability to pay the state’s surveillance costs), barred from leaving his home without a court-approved monitor, and faced with a curfew worse than that imposed on most 10-year-olds. He cannot teach, his home is frequently invaded by RCMP agents, and he lives with the unimaginable stress that he might spend the rest of his life in a small French jail cell…

Read the full article at:

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/9223-canadian-qkq-hassan-diabs-kafkaesque-twilight.html