A Canadian court set a June 14 extradition hearing Friday for Canadian-Lebanese national Hassan Diab, arrested 15 months ago for his alleged role in a 1980 Paris bombing that killed four people.
The Ontario Superior Court will hear arguments over three weeks.
Diab was arrested in November 2008 in a suburb of Canada’s capital Ottawa at the request of French authorities who want him extradited to face murder and other charges.
A review of his nearly year-old strict bail conditions, which include wearing an electronic monitoring anklet costing him 2,500 dollars a month, is scheduled for April 6.
France was given until the end of May to present new evidence in the case, after which the judge had said he “may not be receptive” to the introduction of new evidence. But France could avoid the deadline by refiling its extradition request and starting over from scratch.
In October 1980, a bomb planted in a motorcycle saddlebag outside the Copernic Street synagogue in the tony 16th arrondissement killed three Frenchmen and a young Israeli woman, and injured dozens.
It was the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation of World War II.
French authorities issued a warrant in November 2007 for Diab’s arrest, following a lead from German intelligence. But Diab claimed at the time he was a victim of mistaken identity and denied any links to extremist organizations.