By Matthew Behrens
Around 25 friends and supporters of University of Ottawa professor and Canadian citizen Hassan Diab, including a Carnival-inspired Cupid, braved bitterly cold weather Feb. 9 to deliver Valentine’s Day greetings to Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and the French embassy. Carrying banners that read “France Has the Wrong Guy,” they urged the Canadian and French governments to have a change of heart and return Dr. Diab from the French jail where he’s been detained since Nov. 2014.
“What better time than Valentine’s to express our support and love for a man who is a gentle, caring father, respected professor and giving community member?” asked Jo Wood, a long-time member of the Justice for Hassan Diab support group.
During this vigil, Wood held up a large heart inscribed with “Free Hassan.” Other group members signed a large Valentine for Dion, but a line of Ottawa police, private security, and RCMP prevented the group from delivering their gift to the front door of the massive Sussex Drive complex. A heart-shaped chocolate cheesecake was also turned away.
Diab’s partner Rania Tfaily shared what was in her heart as well. She asked officials to consider the difficulties faced by their family, who were refused the goodbye that federal officials had promised would be allowed if Diab’s final appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected. In reality, he was forcibly removed from Ottawa less than 24 hours after the decision was made.
Following the march to the French embassy, police threatened to charge Cupid and other group members if they continued to hold banners on the north side of the street closest to the embassy. The group eventually crossed the street when they were promised a meeting with someone from the embassy staff, who courteously listened and took back both a handful of Valentines and chocolates as well as a request to meet with the ambassador.
Originally arrested in 2008, Diab spent the following six years under house arrest in Ottawa as he fought allegations that he was involved in a 1980 bombing in France. This meant that he could no longer teach, yet he was required to pay $2,000 a month for the monitoring device that he had strapped to his leg.
During this time, he was forced to endure rounds of extradition hearings. While the judicial standards of these hearings remained quite low, issues were still discovered in the alleged case against him, as it was determined that Diab’s physical description, palm and thumb prints, and handwriting were not a match with the 1980 bombing suspect’s.
The Ontario extradition judge concluded that the “smoking gun” evidence against Diab was “very problematic,” while “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial [seemed] unlikely.”
Diab has consistently denied the allegations and condemned the bombing. The Supreme Court’s rejection of his appeal opened the door to Diab’s forced removal from Canada. In the wake of this incident, Donald Bayne, Diab’s Ottawa lawyer, declared, “we now have in my view a classic recipe for the wrongful conviction of a Canadian.”
French anti-terrorism courts have been criticized by Human Rights Watch for conducting unfair trials and accepting unsourced intelligence as evidence, which is exactly what has happened in Diab’s case. Not even the French judges know the origins of the intelligence that has incriminated Diab, or its reliability.
Twice denied bail, Diab remains behind bars as a French judge examines the case to determine whether charges will be laid. Diab hopes that key pieces of information such as the problematic handwriting analysis will be withdrawn.
Using five words printed in a Paris hotel register in 1980, French authorities have tried to implicate Diab by comparing these block letters to samples of cursive from Diab’s PhD admissions documents at Syracuse University. Their conclusion was that the cursive samples were written by the same man who printed those block letters, failing to realize that the cursive actually belonged to his then-wife, Nawal.
French authorities were allowed to replace this report with a second report, that was also found to be unreliable under cross-examination, as the “experts” who had drafted it had failed to use standard, accepted methods, according to Diab’s defence.
After the second French expert report was withdrawn, a third was offered up and though he eventually relied on it in his judicial decision, the extradition judge found it to be “susceptible to a great deal of criticism and attack,” also calling it “illogical… convoluted, very confusing, with conclusions that are suspect.”
Tfaily and their two young children continue to lead the struggle for Diab’s freedom. At the end of March, his supporters will again demonstrate at the French embassy with the assistance of the Easter Bunny. More details at justiceforhassandiab.org
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 8 No. 5 (Feb/March)
