Government’s shameful silence on Diab

Re Ottawa must seek justice for Hassan Diab, July 10 On principle, France does not extradite its own citizens. Yet, on the basis of deeply flawed evidence, France has pursued Canadian citizen Hassan Diab for nine years.

Diab was extradited by the Harper government on the basis of evidence which, according to Canadian Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger, would never have resulted in conviction in Canada. At this juncture, the situation is not mere lack of evidence of his culpability but mounting irrefutable evidence of his innocence which cries out for his release.

Diab’s support committee reports that “three different French judges have ordered the conditional release of Hassan six times in the past 13 months because of ‘consistent evidence’ that he was in Lebanon at the time of the 1980 Paris bombing. Several witnesses have independently corroborated that Hassan was studying and taking exams with them at that time.

This was confirmed by official documents from the university where Hassan studied.”

But, “despite overwhelming evidence pointing to Hassan’s innocence (including fingerprints and palm prints that do not match those of the suspect), the Court of Appeal has summarily dismissed all six conditional release orders at the prosecutor’s behest.”

Diab’s case will go down in history as a miscarriage of French justice.

Justin Trudeau’s Canadian government surely knows Hassan Diab will be exonerated.

Hopefully, that will happen soon with their belated intervention, rather than later due to their shameful silence. Marjorie Robertson, Ottawa