Canadian Crown prosecutors will speak on behalf of France in an Ottawa courtroom on Tuesday when they defend the European country’s efforts to extradite a former professor over his alleged involvement in a 1980 bombing.
Hassan Diab, a 56-year-old former Ottawa sociology professor, was arrested by RCMP officers in 2008 after French authorities accused him of being involved in the Paris synagogue bombing that killed four people and injured dozens of others.
His lawyer, Donald Bayne, filed an an abuse-of-process application in Ontario Superior Court and finished his arguments on Monday, arguing the case should be thrown out because the case against Diab has been built on on unverifiable secret intelligence from countries outside France.
Bayne argued there was no guarantee the evidence obtained against his client was not obtained by torture.
French authorities claim Diab was involved in a Palestinian liberation group at the time of the bombing.
Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian, was released on bail in March 2009 with strict conditions set on his movements. He cannot leave his residence alone, must wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, must abide by a strict curfew and must report weekly to the RCMP.
Diab has long argued his innocence and said French authorities have the wrong man.
In a statement last week, Diab condemned “all ethnically, racially and religiously motivated violence.”
