DEMAND JUSTICE FOR HASSAN DIAB

The nightmare that Dr. Hassan Diab, Canadian citizen and former professor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, has been living for 14 years is still not over.

Using highly flawed evidence that they claimed identified Diab with a bombing in France in 1980 that killed four people, French prosecutors demanded Diab’s extradition from Canada in 2008. In 2014, he was extradited by the Conservative government to France, where he was held in solitary confinement for more than three years without charge or trial, despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, including the fact that he was in Lebanon, writing university exams, at the time of the bombing.

In 2018, two French investigating judges concluded that there were no grounds for charges against him and freed him unconditionally. On Diab’s return to Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau stated, “I think, for Hassan Diab, we have to recognize first of all that what happened to him never should have happened ... . and make sure that it never happens again.”

Bowing to political pressure and the victims’ lobby, French prosecutors appealed Diab’s release. Due to the pandemic, the case has proceeded slowly but, shockingly, they have recently won their appeal, despite the fact that all the old “evidence” against Dr. Diab has been discredited, and no new evidence has been found. A trial date has been set for April 2023.

Prime Minister Trudeau must stand by his words. Hassan Diab must not be extradited again.

Mary Cowper-smith, Charlottetown, P.E.I.