of jerusalem post office on monday reported Dr. Hassan Diab, a Lebanese sociology professor who was convicted by a French court of involvement in the 1980 bombing that killed four people at a synagogue in Paris, is a professor of social justice in action at Carleton University in Ottawa. I teach courses on “.
Diab is not just another radical university professor with a dark background in the distant past. He is an active fugitive from international justice and has an outstanding arrest warrant from France on terrorism charges.
Attacks related to Diab violated October 3, 1980 at the Synagogue on Kopernik Street. This was the first attack targeting Jews in France since World War II. This became the template for many subsequent terrorist attacks on places of worship (including mosques, where groups such as the Islamic State attack “misguided” Muslims in the Middle East).
The ensuing investigation was seen as a classic example of determined law enforcement bringing a terrorist to justice (albeit temporarily), or, from the perspective of Mr. Diab's defenders, as an out-of-control prosecutor's office with dozens of It is often cited as a prime example of the torment of innocent men over the years. .
The bomber placed an explosive device in the saddlebag of a motorbike outside the synagogue, and timed it to detonate at a time when it would be possible to inflict maximum slaughter on Jews emerging from religious services. Fortunately, due to a late departure from the synagogue that day, the bomb detonated early, resulting in far fewer casualties than intended.
The explosion resulted in 4 deaths and 46 injuries. Investigators initially believed the perpetrator was a neo-Nazi, but by the end of 1980 it was determined that he was from the Middle East.
It took length There was limited time to narrow down the culprit to Hassan Diab, but once he was identified, French prosecutors said there were no other serious suspects in the case. He was allegedly operating as part of a larger cell whose other members were not identified. French prosecutors believe Diab manufactured and planted the Kopernik Street bomb.
Some of the key evidence against Diab came from the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall, specifically Diab's passport, which was recovered from a leader of a terrorist group called Special Operations Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. PFLP-SO).
His passport was stamped, indicating that Diab had left Spain in time for the Via Copernic attack and returned shortly thereafter. Diab is of Palestinian descent but was living in Lebanon at the time.
Passport did not conclusively prove Diab was in france That's because Raid and his defense disputed other evidence that was less conclusive, such as his alleged signature on a hotel registration form. Diab had a friend who testified that he was in Beirut to take university exams at the time of the attack.
Diab's name was not released until 1999. It was about 20 years after the incident, and six years after he became a sociology professor in Ottawa after acquiring Canadian citizenship. France issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2007, and Canada agreed to extradite him in 2014.
A French magistrate dismissed the case against Diab in 2018 due to insufficient evidence, but that decision was successfully appealed in 2021. supported This is the first time the French Supreme Court has reopened a terrorism case.
Diab was supposed to be under house arrest upon his release, but he returned to Canada in 2018 after spending three years in detention in France. he was I tried it He was absent in April 2023, 43 years after the synagogue bombing. His refusal to attend the trial infuriated both French authorities and Jewish families who wanted an end to the bombings.
Diab, who is now 70 years old, was convicted of a crime He was charged with terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment on April 21, 2023. The court issued an international warrant for his arrest. Speaking from Ottawa, Diab maintained his innocence and dismissed his conviction as “Kafkaesque.”
The family of the Kopernik Street victim said: jerusalem post office On Monday, they were outraged to learn that Mr. Diab is a current professor of sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he teaches a course called “The Practice of Social Justice.”
The sons of bombing victim Aliza Shlagir, an Israeli television presenter who died in 1980, said: “An academic institution that is supposed to promote values of equality and justice employs a cold-blooded murderer.'' The decision to do so is outrageous.” He was unanimously found guilty by a French court. ”
“Perpetrating an act of murderous terrorism that clearly targets Jews is not contrary to Carleton University’s values,” they said.
Idit Shamir, the Israeli consul general in Toronto, said Shragir is the mother of a friend and Diab's position at the Canadian university is a personal blow.
“A French court gave him a life sentence for murdering four souls and seriously injuring 46 others, and yet Carleton University gave him a teaching position? It's not just a failure of justice. It's spitting on the graves of Jewish victims,” Shamir said.
B'nai Brith Canada also called Diab's teaching duties “unconscionable” and said it was “deeply disturbing” that Carleton University had ignored Diab's request for his dismissal. B'nai Brith Canada also objected to Diab's hiring by Carleton University to teach introductory sociology in 2009, when the university terminated his contract.
Carleton has now staunchly supported Diab, describing him on his website as “unjustly accused” and promoting a lecture in which he told his version of the Copernic Street story. There is. A button labeled “Support Hassan Diab” appears on the university's Department of Social Anthropology's page, linking to a request for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to guarantee Diab will not be extradited back to France.
Mr. Diab has worked at Carleton University since 2006, and in addition to responding to the B'nai B'rith complaint in 2009, Carleton University has actively pursued his case, including a rally in 2022 to assert his innocence. has been promoted and defended.
canadian national post office observed The entire course outline for the class Diab teaches “appears to consist of Diab repeating his innocence.”
“This course will focus on miscarriages of justice related to Canadian extradition law and will closely examine high-profile extradition cases that highlight the issues involved,” the course summary reads. Students who take this course quickly discover that the “high-profile extradition case” is Diab's own.
