On April 21, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ (CIJA) emails were abuzz: after more than four decades, Hassan Diab, the accused — now convicted — terrorist bomber of France’s Copernic synagogue, was finally going to be held accountable for murdering four and injuring dozens more.
CIJA has been active on this file since Carleton University hired, and then fired, Diab in 2009. In fact, one of our first tweets promoted an op-ed about the case.
The targeted attack against innocent French Jews was horrific, and we had hope that Diab’s conviction would be the closure the victims’ families have long deserved. As Canada’s Jewish community waits for France to send an official extradition request, our team’s passion for ensuring that the families see justice has been reawakened.
Suddenly, though, the legal system in France — a member of the G7 and a democratic world power governed by the rule of law — is being called into question by Diab’s supporters, as if France were an obscure, corrupt dictatorship targeting innocent bystanders. They portray the convicted terrorist as a hapless victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.
The fact is, however, that the decades-long, multinational investigation produced swaths of evidence of Diab’s guilt. Veteran counter-terrorism intelligence officers linked Diab with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations terrorist group in the 1980s, and presented the court with evidence of his whereabouts around the time of the bombing.
The fact is also that Hassan Diab had many opportunities to clear his name, which he declined. At his first trial, he refused to answer any questions, choosing to exercise his right to silence. For his second trial — which was ordered when it became clear that important evidence had been overlooked or rejected when the first case was dismissed — Diab declined to appear, choosing to be tried in absentia.
Throughout both trials, the French judicial system provided every opportunity for his lawyers to present a robust defence against the charges. Diab’s legal team seized every opportunity to present alternative evidence, contradicting witnesses and expert testimony, and made attempts to rebut the case against him. Despite his team’s vigorous efforts to exonerate him, however, the evidence against Diab was deemed by the court to be persuasive, even overwhelming.
Though it required years of investigation and even a failed court case to get to a point where the court concluded that it finally had enough incontrovertible evidence to convict, it did indeed get to that point. The Special Assize Court of Paris found Diab guilty of bombing the Copernic synagogue on Oct. 3, 1980, killing four people and injuring 46 more. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
What’s left is for the Canadian government to do what’s right and give the survivors and the victims’ families what they have waited for patiently for nearly 43 years: justice, closure and a chance to move forward. Diab’s extradition to France should be undertaken without delay.
Richard Marceau is vice-president (external affairs) and general counsel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
