PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Diab's lawyers said this latest review delivered "a scathing critique and rebuke" of the original handwriting analysis "that mirror[s] the critique by the defence during the extradition hearing 10 years ago." The French investigative judges who released Diab also found he had an alibi for the day of the Paris bombing. Using university records and interviews with Diab's classmates, the investigative judges determined he was "probably in Lebanon" writing exams when the bombing outside the synagogue took place. "It is likely that Hassan Diab was in Lebanon during September and October 1980 … and it is therefore unlikely that he is the man … who then laid the bomb on Rue Copernic on October 3rd, 1980," they wrote. In 2018, CBC News confirmed that France was aware of — and had failed to disclose — fingerprint evidence that ended up playing a critical role in Diab's release."
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STORY: "French court finds Hassan Diab guilty of involvement in 1980 bombing," the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Web writer and and Associate CBC Radio Producer Richard Raycroft) reports on April 2, 2023.
SUB-HEADING: "A French court has sentenced the Ottawa academic to life in prison."
GIST: "A French court has found Ottawa academic Hassan Diab guilty in absentia on charges related to the bombing of a Paris synagogue.
The Ottawa university lecturer, now 69, was accused by authorities of involvement in the 1980 Rue Copernic bombing in Paris, which killed four people and injured more than 40. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The court sentenced Diab to life in prison and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa following the verdict Friday, Diab expressed disappointment and called his situation "Kafkaesque."
"We hoped reason would prevail," Diab said.
Diab's lawyer, Donald Bayne, said the conviction is unjust.
"The evidence shows he's innocent and yet they've convicted him," Bayne said.
"It's a political result. It's a wrongful conviction.”
Bayne said the next step is to see if France makes a request for extradition.
Reacting to the verdict Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not say what Canada will do in response.
"We will look carefully at next steps, at what the French government chooses to do, at what French tribunals choose to do," Trudeau told a news conference.
"But we will always be there to stand up for Canadians and their rights.”years ag
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), expressed satisfaction with the verdict.
"After 43 years of judicial wandering, justice is finally served for this deadly antisemitic attack," Arfi said in a tweet in French.
"Everything must now be done to enforce the international arrest warrant. CRIF calls on Canada to cooperate with French justice."
Diab was arrested by the RCMP in November 2008 and placed under strict bail conditions until he was extradited to France in 2014. He spent more than three years in prison in France before the case against him collapsed.
He was released in January 2018 after two French judges ruled the evidence against him wasn't strong enough to take to trial. He was never formally charged.
Diab's release was opposed by more than 20 civil society groups in France — including victims of terrorism groups and pro-Israel organizations.
French prosecutors appealed Diab's release promptly — but the case moved slowly as prosecutors searched for new evidence against Diab. The court proceedings were also delayed by the pandemic.
In 2021, France's top court rejected Hassan Diab's appeal and ordered him to stand trial, indicating that they would try him in absentia if he failed to return to France.
The handwriting evidence:
The key physical evidence Canada relied on in extraditing Diab to France was handwriting analysis linking Diab's handwriting to that of the suspected bomber. Canadian government lawyers acting on France's behalf called it a "smoking gun" in the extradition hearing.
But in 2009, Diab's legal team produced contrary reports from four international handwriting experts. These experts questioned the methods and conclusions of the French experts. They also proved that some of the handwriting samples used by the French analysts belonged not to Diab but to his ex-wife.
French investigative judges dismissed the handwriting evidence as unreliable when they ordered Diab's release in January 2018.
While considering the appeal of Diab's release, another French judge ordered an independent review of the contentious handwriting evidence.
Fingerprint evidence led to release:
Diab's lawyers said this latest review delivered "a scathing critique and rebuke" of the original handwriting analysis "that mirror[s] the critique by the defence during the extradition hearing 10 years ago."
The French investigative judges who released Diab also found he had an alibi for the day of the Paris bombing. Using university records and interviews with Diab's classmates, the investigative judges determined he was "probably in Lebanon" writing exams when the bombing outside the synagogue took place.
"It is likely that Hassan Diab was in Lebanon during September and October 1980 … and it is therefore unlikely that he is the man … who then laid the bomb on Rue Copernic on October 3rd, 1980," they wrote.
In 2018, CBC News confirmed that France was aware of — and had failed to disclose — fingerprint evidence that ended up playing a critical role in Diab's release.
Survivors of the attack and victims' families attended the first day of proceedings in Paris earlier this month. At those proceedings, prosecutor Benjamin Chambre called Diab's absence proof of "great cowardice in his behaviour."
"It's a grave abomination for justice and for the victims 43 years after the events," Chambre added.
In a statement issued by the Hassan Diab Support Committee, Donald Bayne, Diab's Canadian lawyer, said the case against his client is "replete with seemingly disconnected information."
The case against Diab, Bayne said, contains "a great deal of argument, hypothesis, conjecture and references to information received, without describing the source of that information or the circumstances upon which it was received."
Amnesty International last month described the case against Diab as "baseless and flawed" and said pursuing Diab directly undermined justice for victims of the synagogue attack.
"Amnesty International is calling on the French Public Prosecutor for Anti-Terrorism to drop the groundless charges against Dr. Hassan Diab," the group said in a media statement
Since his release, Diab has been living with his wife and two children in Ottawa. He has resumed work as a part-time lecturer."
The entire story can be read at:
diab-verdict-in-absentia-1.6817944
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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