Like a number of Muslim men in Canada, Ottawa's Dr. Hassan Diab is forced to wear the ultimate symbol of state control: a GPS monitoring unit.
This tracking device, for which the impoverished and currently unemployed university professor was forced to pay $30,000 for the first year (and now $1,500 monthly), is permanently affixed to his leg, tracking his every move under strict house arrest.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's protracted effort to fight extradition to Sweden suffered a body blow this week. Britain's Supreme Court upheld the arrest warrant, issued in December 2010. After the court announced its split 5-2 decision, the justices surprised many legal observers by granting Assange's lawyers an opportunity to challenge their decision -- the first such reconsideration since the high-profile British extradition case from more than a decade ago against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The decision came almost two years to the day after Pvt. Bradley Manning was arrested in Iraq for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents to Wikileaks.
The multi-year extradition saga of Ottawa university professor Hassan Diab -- sought by the French for his alleged role in a 1980 Paris bombing that claimed four lives -- has taken yet another bizarre turn with the news that Diab has not even been formally charged. He is merely sought for questioning, with no guarantee that a trial would ensue.
Despite this astounding discovery -- no doubt discomfiting to the Ontario judge who presided over Diab's two-year extradition hearing -- Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has signed a surrender order committing Diab to years of French detention without charge while the 32-year investigation into the crime continues.
Hassan Diab, a Canadian citizen and former University of Ottawa professor, faces the possibility of life imprisonment in France for his alleged role in a 1980 Paris bombing that killed four people. Diab's finger and palm prints do not match those of the suspect, nor does his handwriting. The suspect's physical description is unlike what Diab looked like in 1980, and Diab denies being in France and emphatically condemns the bombing. He's being sought based on secret intelligence, the source of which even French officials are unaware, that may have been extracted under torture. Nevertheless, Canada's draconian Extradition Act may provide legal grounds for Canada to send Diab to France to stand trial.
Come to a rally on the day of the decision to show your support for Hassan and protest unfair extradition proceedings.
Bring banners and signs voicing your concerns and showing your support for Hassan.
After the rally, at 9:50 am, we will accompany Hassan into the courtroom.
Court DecisionOn June 6, 2011, at 10:00 AM, the judge will announce his decision regarding whether to commit Hassan for extradition.
When: Monday, June 6, 2011, at 10:00 AM
Where: Ontario Superior Court, 161 Elgin Street, Ottawa
Hassan Diab is a Canadian citizen who has been fighting extradition to France since 2007. The French prosecutors compiled a case against him based on secret intelligence said to be from German and Israeli sources. It alleges his involvement in a bombing that took place in Paris in 1980. He was arrested in 2008 and released in 2009 on strict bail conditions, including having to wear a self-financed GPS tracking device. The Canadian Extradition Act allows for the requesting country, in this case France, to submit nothing more than a summary of its evidence before sending Canadian citizens to face trial abroad. However, Diab's Record of the Case revealed exonerating and incomplete evidence.
