The lawyer for a man accused of bombing a Paris synagogue 30 years ago conceded to an Ottawa judge Tuesday that he was embarrassed to be arguing about something so silly.
How is the word assez to be translated in documents presented by the French government to argue for Hassan Diab’s extradition, defence lawyer Donald Bayne wanted to know. The French say the hair of the bombing suspect, who killed four people and injured 40 more, was assez long. Is that “quite,” “rather,” “fairly” or “somewhat”?
Fine distinctions, but in this case “identity is everything,” as federal Crown lawyer Claude LeFrançois put it.
And what of vraisemblable?
Bayne and federal Crown lawyer Claude LeFrançois battled over the words for an hour and a half in front of Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger Tuesday morning. At stake is the future of Diab, a sometime professor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, who was arrested in 2008 in Canada because the French government wants to try him for murder.
French investigators provided Canadian authorities with a synopsis of their case against Diab, which was all in French. Maranger and Crown attorney LeFrançois speak French; Bayne and Diab do not.
Since the translated version of the document is what will be relied upon during the actual extradition hearing, slated to begin in June, the translation of the document is significant.
Bayne argued the word assez, which was used by French witnesses to describe the hair or face of the suspect in the bombing, should be translated to the English word “quite” — as in “the suspect’s hair was quite long.” The same word is used in descriptions of his height, hair colour, and face.
LeFrançois argued there are other meanings for the French word, including “rather,” “fairly” and “somewhat.”
“These words have importance because Your Honour will be called upon to say if these words are identifying Mr. Diab,” said LeFrançois.
LeFrançois also took issue with the translation of the word vraisemblable in the document in relation to a piece of 1999 intelligence information linking Diab to the bombing. LeFrançois said the word has been translated to mean “plausible” when the actual French meaning of the word is stronger and means something “seems to be true” or “is likely correct.”
Bayne also sought to have the full names of the French investigative agencies, such as the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur or DCRI (literally, the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence), which probed the bombing, translated into English, while LeFrançois argued they should remain in French or as acronyms in the documents.
“My concern is there appears to be an attempt to expunge the word ‘intelligence’ wherever it is possible,” said Bayne, who intends to argue that intelligence information used by the French to identify Diab as the alleged bomber is not reliable.
LeFrançois accused Bayne of trying to get the word “intelligence” into the English translation in a “haphazard” way, wherever he could.
The bilingual Judge Maranger, who joked with the lawyers often and smiled frequently as he took notes, quickly settled on the word “rather” as the best translation from assez and the word “likely” for vraisemblable. He also decided that there is no need to translate the acronyms of French government agencies since the acronyms are all he would be using in his decision.
