Justice Delayed is Justice Denied - Take a Stand for Hassan Diab November 29 2017
**UPDATE: Hassan Diab returned home to Ottawa, Canada after terrorism charges against him were dropped by French authorities. From here, Diab and his supporters want to work to see Canada's extradition laws fixed. You can continue to support this work and get involved here.**
**Important and Time Sensitive Update: On Wednesday November 29, please call Prime Minister Trudeau’s office at 1-613-992-4211, fax at 1-613-941-6900, or send an email through the form available here. You may also call his constituency office (Papineau, Quebec) at 1-514-277-6020.
If you want help to know what to say, please see a sample script here.
If you miss this date, please still call, fax or email the PM Justin Trudeau's office if you would like to help Hassan Diab's cause.**
Happy belated birthday to Hassan Diab. November 20th was yet another of his birthdays that he had to spend in a prison cell, awaiting trial.
In 2008, Lebanese-Canadian citizen, Hassan Diab, was arrested in Ottawa on instructions from French authorities who accused him of responsibility for a terrorist attack on a Paris synagogue in 1980.
In 2014 after some years in the Canadian courts, he was extradited to France to face trial, despite the Canadian judge’s view that the evidence was too weak to succeed in a fair trial.
It’s 2017 and Hassan is still in a French prison cell, in solitary confinement for 20 hours each day, awaiting trial.
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Diab categorically denies any involvement in the bombing in 1980; he has proof he was in Lebanon at the time of the attack, writing university exams. The French claim to have a sample of the attacker’s handwriting from his hotel registration; numerous experts have refuted the claim that this sample matches Diab’s.
The French claim to have ‘intelligence’ placing Diab at the scene but can’t or won’t substantiate that information so Diab cannot respond to it. A witness says the man at the hotel was in his 50s; Hassan was 27 in 1980.
The French prosecutors were certain enough of their case to demand Diab’s extradition from Canada but now claim they need more time to build the case. This absurd situation cannot stand – Diab deserves a fair trial now.
Until 2008, Hassan Diab worked as a university professor at University of Ottawa and Carleton University. He is a father and husband and a law-abiding Canadian citizen. His main crime seems to be having come from Lebanon and deciding to make Canada his home.
Our extradition laws are so weak that a foreign power only has to show that there is a prima facie case – not that the case is winnable – and a Canadian citizen faces extradition.
Hassan Diab is any one of us who might have come from somewhere else or who might find themselves at the centre of a foreign political witch hunt. Canada has to insist on justice for Diab now.
Hassan Diab has been the victim of an abuse of state power on the one hand and an abdication of state responsibility on the other. He deserves Canada’s and Canadians’ support to get a fair trial in France now. What has happened to him could happen to any of us.
The Canadian Government must take a stand for Hassan Diab and for us all. We hope this was the last birthday Hassan Diab had to spend without a fair trial.
Want to Help Take a Stand for Hassan?
If you are interested in learning more about Hassan's case and how you can help to get involved you can follow along here:
You can also sign the change.org petition.
