Hassan Diab
| Hassan Diab | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 20, 1953 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Residence | Ottawa, Ontario |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | University Professor |
| Criminal charge | Alleged involvement in the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing |
| Criminal status | Released without conditions by the French investigative judge |
Hassan Diab (Arabic: حسن دياب) (born November 20, 1953) is a former sociology professor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In 2008, France requested his extradition for his alleged involvement in the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing. After a lengthy extradition hearing, on June 6, 2011, the Canadian extradition judge described the evidence as “convoluted, very confusing, with conclusions that are suspect” and stated that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”. However, the judge said that his interpretation of Canada’s extradition law left him no choice but to commit Diab to extradition.
On April 4, 2012, the Minister of Justice, Rob Nicholson, ordered Diab extradited to France. Diab's appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal was rejected and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case. On November 14, 2014, Hassan was extradited from Canada to France where he languished in prison for 3 years and two months while the investigation into the 36-year old crime continued.
Since then four French anti-terrorism judges have uncovered testimony from several individuals stating that Dr. Diab was in Lebanon at the time of the bombing as well as University records which show he wrote and passed exams in Beirut then and couldn't have been in Paris. They have ordered his conditional release under electronic surveillance eight times, only to have their orders challenged by the prosecutor and overturned by an appeal court. On Friday, January 12, 2018, French authorities dropped all charges against Hassan Diab, citing lack of evidence. On Tuesday January 16 his Ottawa support committee called a press release for Wednesday January 17 at the offices of Amnesty International Canada with Dr. Diab, who returned to Canada on January 14 accompanied by a Canadian consular official.
Diab was born in Lebanon and studied sociology at the American University of Beirut. He received a PhD from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. He became a Canadian citizen in 1993, and moved to Ottawa in 2006. He holds dual citizenship.
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