Court Approves Seizure of Computers in Diab Case

The Ontario Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt by the common-law wife of accused terrorist Hassan Diab to prevent the sending of two computers to France. In a decision released Wednesday, the court of appeal found that there were reasonable and proper grounds for the seizure of two computers that either belonged to or were being used by Rania Tfaily.

Tfaily had argued that warrants to seize her two computers were improperly issued and that there was insufficient grounds to suspect that Diab was using e-mail to communicate with other suspects in a plot to blow up a Paris synagogue in 1980 or using her two computers.

Diab is currently awaiting a June extradition hearing on murder and other charges in connection with the bombing, which killed four.

In their decision upholding the warrants to seize the computers, the three appeal court judges wrote that there was a “practical and reasonable probability” that Diab was using e-mail to communicate with other members of the terrorist plot, noting there was a spike in his communication with an ex-wife associated with the terrorist group suspected in the attack after newspaper articles about his alleged involvement appeared.

They also found there was a reasonable probability that Diab was using Tfaily’s computers to e-mail others, since he lived in the same residence where one of the computers was kept, and both taught at Carleton University, where the second computer was.

Diab also appeared to take steps to disguise his communications by using payphones or other devices that were not his own, the judges ruled.

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