The Ottawa university professor arrested this week in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue is a devoted teacher who is shocked by the charges he currently faces, his lawyer said Saturday.
Hassan Diab, 54, is wanted in France on multiple counts of murder, attempted murder and wilful destruction of property by an organized group after a bombing outside a Paris synagogue killed four in October 1980. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Special Operations, was blamed for the attack.
Rene Duval, Diab’s lawyer, said his client has been in a state of shock since RCMP officers showed up at the door of his Gatineau home on Thursday with an arrest warrant.
“When you’ve never had any problems with the law and all of a sudden to be handcuffed and foot-chained and driven to RCMP headquarters and then to court, it’s distressing,” Duval said from his home in Trois-Rivieres.
Diab appeared in Ottawa court Friday. He is being held in the segregation unit of the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre until his bail hearing Thursday.
