The lawyer for former Carleton professor Hassan Diab is presenting a new defence in Diab’s extradition hearing, claiming his client’s constitutional rights are being violated, according to an Abuse of Process factum he had filed with the Ontario Superior Court.
Diab, who stands accused of being involved in the 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris, has been unable to present his own expert handwriting witnesses to provide for a reasonable defence, according to Dr. Peter Gose, a sociology professor at Carleton.
According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, evidence must be able to be cross-examined in order to be valid in Canada. In this case, the French prosecutors are trying to present evidence that would not be able to be cross-examined, Gose said.
“In the technical review of the French handwriting analysis, it was strongly suggested that there were differences between Diab’s writing and the presumptive bomber’s writing, that in a methodologically proper study would have excluded Diab as a subject,” Gose said.
Gose said there are inconsistencies in the handwriting analysis used against Diab.
“We don’t have a very clear story from the French about what he is alleged to have done and it’s extremely troubling,” he said.
The French government requested and attained fingerprint and palm print evidence from Diab because they have those of the presumptive bomber. This evidence still has yet to be presented to the judge, Gose said.
“We know there’s exonerating physical [fingerprint] evidence here, and France is simply suppressing this; and unfortunately Judge Maranger seems to have bought the argument that France is not obliged to present a full and forthright picture of the case,” Gose said.
"[T]his extradition case and Record of the Case upon which it relies is founded on ‘secret’, unsourced, uncircumstanced ‘intelligence’ assertions, bald, conclusory and anonymous allegations of individual and group responsibility for a criminal act some three decades ago,” says the Abuse of Process factum from Diab’s lawyer.
The document said Diab’s lawyer is requesting a stay on the proceedings.
Diab has been fighting against extradition since last fall and has been fighting the charges against him since November 2008.
