Lebanese-Canadian to Appeal Extradition over 1980 French Bombing
A Lebanese-Canadian university professor accused of a 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people will appeal an order to extradite him to France, his lawyer said Friday.
Canada's justice minister on April 4 signed an order to send Hassan Diab to France after a Canadian court in June 2011 approved his extradition despite its concerns the case is "weak."
The sociologist at the University of Ottawa denies any involvement in the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II.
His lawyer Donald Bayne said Attorney General Rob Nicholson's decision was made in the face of "shocking new information that France is not prepared to put Hassan Diab on trial, but is only seeking him for questioning."
French officials confirmed no charges have been laid, yet.
Both sides left open the possibility that Diab would be formally charged upon his return to France.
Bayne also said some of the evidence in the case was obtained from Syrian intelligence services through torture, and thus questioned its reliability.
The lawyer said he would appeal the minister's order. It will be heard by year's end, at the same time as another appeal of the evidence presented at Diab's extradition hearing.
"We simply cannot be sending Canadians around the world so foreign regimes can investigate them," Bayne said. "Either there's a case against them or there isn't."
"Canada is alone in doing this and Canada has never done this before."
Diab himself told a press conference, "I'm very disappointed that the minister of justice has allowed this travesty to go on."
"It's a grave injustice to extradite me for a crime that the evidence shows I did not commit."
"I would like to go back to teaching and resume my life... and not languish without charges in a French jail."
Diab stressed that he does not support terrorism and is "not an anti-Semite."
Furthermore, he said he wishes to cooperate with the French investigation and answer "any questions," but from home. His lawyer said police have not responded to the offer.
Diab, a Canadian of Lebanese descent, was arrested in an Ottawa suburb in November 2008 following a request from French prosecutors.
France alleges Diab was a member of a Palestinian extremist group believed to have planted a bomb in a motorcycle saddlebag outside the Copernic Street synagogue in the posh 16th arrondissement of Paris on October 3, 1980.
The blast killed three Frenchmen and a young Israeli woman, and injured dozens.
Diab faces life in prison if charged and convicted.
Source: Agence France Presse
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