"In a surprise move, a French judge has ordered that
Ottawa academic Hassan Diab be released from jail while an investigation
into his alleged involvement in a 1980 Paris terrorist attack
continues. But prosecutors, apparently intent on seeing Diab back
behind bars, have filed an appeal that is due to be heard early next
week. The Lebanese-born Canadian was released late Saturday and
has communicated numerous times via Skype with his wife, Rania Tfaily,
and their two children, Jena, 3, and 16-month-old son Jad........ Diab, 62, has been held at a jail on the outskirts of
Paris since Nov. 15, 2014 — the day after exhausting numerous legal
appeals against his extradition. The former University of Ottawa and Carleton University
professor is accused of murder, attempted murder and other charges
related to the terrorist bombing outside the Rue Copernic synagogue on
Oct. 3, 1980. The blast, allegedly carried out by an arm of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine, killed four passers-by and
injured more than 40 inside and outside the synagogue. Diab denies any involvement in the bombing and says he wasn’t in Paris on the day of the bombing. After being pulled from his Hull apartment by an
RCMP tactical team on Nov. 13, 2008, Diab was jailed for several months
at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre before being released on strict
bail conditions. Under the terms of his release in France, Diab is allowed
to walk alone in public for three hours each afternoon and although he
must wear a monitoring device, he does not have to pay for it, as he did
in Ottawa. A legal wrangle preceded Diab’s release in Paris, with the
investigating magistrate overseeing the case deciding that the academic
is not a flight risk. Shortly after the magistrate’s order, prosecutors asked an
appeal court for an emergency hearing and the appeal court – three
judges – overturned the magistrate’s order. Shortly after that, a judge in charge of reviewing pre-trial incarceration ordered Diab released. The prosecutors’ next attempt to overturn the order goes back to the same three judges next week. Ottawa lawyer Donald Bayne, who represented Diab during
his two-year extradition hearing, said Tuesday that Diab phoned to tell
him of the release. “I got the surprise of my life,” said Bayne. “We chatted
for a while. He was buoyant about being able to walk out in the fresh
air without a surety – unlike in Canada. “It was an injustice to extradite him in the first place,”
added Bayne. “People are extradited to stand trial, not to face
investigation. But here is a (French) judge who is starting to see the
weaknesses in the case.”.........Key to the French prosecutors’ case is handwriting
analysis comparing Diab’s handwriting with words on a hotel register
written by one of the alleged perpetrators. Three internationally renowned experts called by Bayne to
testify at the Ottawa extradition hearing unanimously dismissed the
analysis as incompetent and produced from no known accepted standards. Maranger (Judge who ordered Diab's extradition from Canada) characterized the handwriting analysis as
“convoluted, very confusing with conclusions that are suspect” but under
Canadian extradition law said he had no choice but to order Diab be
handed over to the French."
Is The Age of Progressive Prosecutors Over?
21 hours ago
