French authorities allege an Ottawa university professor bought a motorcycle used in a bombing that killed four people and injured 20 at a Paris synagogue in 1980, according to court documents released Thursday.
Officials also allege Hassan Diab used an alias and a false Cypriot passport in 1980 to enter France. The evidence also includes police sketches of the bombing suspect based on witness descriptions, and old passport photos.
On Oct. 3, 1980, a bomb containing the powerful explosive pentrite hidden in the saddlebags of a parked motorcycle exploded outside the synagogue during a Sabbath service, killing three French men and one Israeli woman. About 200,000 people later marched through the streets of Paris to protest the attack.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations was blamed at the time. The investigation was reopened after Diab’s name was on a list of former members of a Palestinian extremist group obtained by German intelligence officials.
In the court documents a report from France’s intelligence agency that fingers Diab as one of the members of the extremist group also indicated the group was involved in a bombing near a synagogue in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1981. That bombing led police to further investigate Diab and discover that he allegedly used the name Alexander Panadriyu to purchase the Suzuki motorcycle that was involved in the bombing in Paris.
Canadian authorities arrested Diab last week, at the request of French authorities. He appeared at a hearing on Thursday.
Diab’s lawyer, Rene Duval, says his client is an innocent victim of mistaken identity and was not in France when the explosion happened.
“The evidence is basically nonexistent. It’s not credible,” Duval said outside court.
Associated Press writer Amy Luft in Montreal contributed to this story.
