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.
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.
Prism TV will carry a live broadcast of the Hassan Diab press conference on Monday, June 6 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Speakers include Don Bayne, Mr. Diab's lawyer, human rights activist Matthew Behrens and Donald Pratt from the Diab Support Committee.
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.
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