STORY: 'Diab lives in limbo ahead of latest terrorism case ruling," by Reporter Chris Cobb, published by the Ottawa Citizen on May 14, 2014.
SUB-HEADING:" Ottawa academic Hassan Diab learns Thursday whether the Ontario Court of Appeal will quash a lower court decision to extradite him to France, where he is a suspect in a 1980 terrorist attack against a Paris synagogue. Diab and his wife, Raina Tfaily, spoke exclusively to the Ottawa Citizen’s Chris Cobb about the impending decision and their life as new parents."
GIST: "The stakes were already high for terrorism suspect Hassan Diab but on Thursday, in the form of his cute-as-a-button toddler, they are even higher.
It’s been six years since an RCMP SWAT squad came banging and screaming at his apartment door in Gatineau and, at the request of France, hauled him in for questioning and then to jail, where he sat for months until a court agreed to bail — essentially a looser form of house arrest. Today, as Canada’s extradition law demands, the 60-year-old former university professor and Canadian citizen is back in an Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre cell awaiting yet another legal landmark in his unique extradition saga. If the appeal court rules in his favour, he will walk free and unhooked from the weight GPS ankle bracelet that adorns his ankle. It is one of several strict bail conditions. If the court rules against him, the Lebanon-born Diab will likely be freed on bail pending another appeal – this time to the Supreme Court of Canada, which may, or may not, agree to hear his case.........French authorities have presented little viable evidence against Diab other than intelligence intercepts that might have come from the files of the East German STASI, the secret police. Canadian federal prosecutors making the case for France were forced to withdraw the intelligence reports because they couldn’t prove they were not gleaned from torture. That left French handwriting analysis comparing Diab’s handwriting with words on a hotel register written by one of the perpetrators. Three internationally renowned handwriting experts called by Diab’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, to testify at the academic’s extradition hearing all dismissed the analysis as incompetent and produced from no known accepted standards. Extradition Judge Robert Maranger characterized the handwriting analysis as “convoluted, very confusing with conclusions that are suspect. “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. However, it matters not that I hold this view. There is no power to deny extradition in cases that appear to the extradition judge to be weak or unlikely to succeed at trial.”
In other words, Canada’s extradition law does not meet the standards of other Canadian law."
The entire story can be found at: SUB-HEADING:" Ottawa academic Hassan Diab learns Thursday whether the Ontario Court of Appeal will quash a lower court decision to extradite him to France, where he is a suspect in a 1980 terrorist attack against a Paris synagogue. Diab and his wife, Raina Tfaily, spoke exclusively to the Ottawa Citizen’s Chris Cobb about the impending decision and their life as new parents."
GIST: "The stakes were already high for terrorism suspect Hassan Diab but on Thursday, in the form of his cute-as-a-button toddler, they are even higher.
It’s been six years since an RCMP SWAT squad came banging and screaming at his apartment door in Gatineau and, at the request of France, hauled him in for questioning and then to jail, where he sat for months until a court agreed to bail — essentially a looser form of house arrest. Today, as Canada’s extradition law demands, the 60-year-old former university professor and Canadian citizen is back in an Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre cell awaiting yet another legal landmark in his unique extradition saga. If the appeal court rules in his favour, he will walk free and unhooked from the weight GPS ankle bracelet that adorns his ankle. It is one of several strict bail conditions. If the court rules against him, the Lebanon-born Diab will likely be freed on bail pending another appeal – this time to the Supreme Court of Canada, which may, or may not, agree to hear his case.........French authorities have presented little viable evidence against Diab other than intelligence intercepts that might have come from the files of the East German STASI, the secret police. Canadian federal prosecutors making the case for France were forced to withdraw the intelligence reports because they couldn’t prove they were not gleaned from torture. That left French handwriting analysis comparing Diab’s handwriting with words on a hotel register written by one of the perpetrators. Three internationally renowned handwriting experts called by Diab’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, to testify at the academic’s extradition hearing all dismissed the analysis as incompetent and produced from no known accepted standards. Extradition Judge Robert Maranger characterized the handwriting analysis as “convoluted, very confusing with conclusions that are suspect. “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. However, it matters not that I hold this view. There is no power to deny extradition in cases that appear to the extradition judge to be weak or unlikely to succeed at trial.”
In other words, Canada’s extradition law does not meet the standards of other Canadian law."
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Diab+lives+limbo+ahead+latest+terrorism+case+ruling/9839339/story.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
