A federal lawyer grilled the Ottawa professor accused of plotting a 1980 Paris bomb attack over his travels and relationships with women during the last two decades.
Hassan Diab is accused of killing four people in the bombing. France is seeking his extradition to face charges there.
Federal lawyer Claude Lefrancois questioned Diab Thursday about his past during a bail hearing that is being held in advance of extradition proceedings.
Lefrancois suggested that Diab’s extensive travels as a student and teacher, as well as a recent vacation in Cuba with a woman -- while he was married to another woman -- undermine his reliability.
The case was under a publication ban, but that has since been lifted.
Diab, a part-time sociology professor, was arrested last week in Gatineau, Que. by the RCMP at the request of France.
He faces charges of murder and attempted murder in France.
Three French citizens and one Israeli woman were killed outside a synagogue in a posh area of Paris when a bomb went off minutes before a crowd of people were due to emerge from the synagogue. Twenty others were hurt.
The evidence includes claims by French police that Diab used a fake Cyprus passport to enter France in 1980 and then bought a motorscooter that carried explosives to just outside the synagogue.
The evidence also had police sketches of their suspect based on witness descriptions.
Lefrancois questioned Diab for four hours over his exit and entry stamps on his Lebanese passpower while he was a student in Lebanon and later while he was in the United States, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
He also questioned Diab about why he did not inform his wife he was flying to Cuba with another women. Diab replied, “Why should I?”
Diab told court relations between himself and his wife, Rania Tfaily, were strained earlier this year when they both believed they were being followed by men in dark cars.
Diab’s lawyer said the evidence against his client ‘is non-existent.’
Lawyer Rene Duval says the French evidence is based on “unreliable” statements and hearsay.
Last year, the French media reported that Diab was being investigated for the bombing. He said that it was a case of mistaken identity.
According to the French magazine L’Express, French authorities believe the bombing was arranged by a Palestinian militant group involved in a dispute with Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization.
Diab’s name was attached to the group by German intelligence, The Associated Press has reported.
