Freed Hassan Diab calls for probe over ‘terrorism’ ordeal

« Is it conceivable? » Ottawa professor Hassan Diab requested himself when he heard the info.

After three years and two months held in solitary confinement in a maximum security jail in a Parisian suburb, Diab – a Sixty four-yr-feeble Canadian – become as soon as horrified in disbelief when his lawyer at final delivered the info that he had been dreaming about for goodbye.

The whisper had disregarded the allegations against him and had ordered for his immediate start.

He become as soon as freed on January 15.

True to assemble certain that the « miracle » become as soon as steady, Diab requested her to repeat and elaborate the info a pair of times.

« At the same time as you assemble no longer know English any longer, it capacity we won, » she acknowledged.

After 10 years of draconian bail conditions and imprisonment, Diab is at final a free man. He arrived abet home in Ottawa final week, rejoining his wife and two kids, the youngest who become as soon as born in his absence.

« It’s some distance a heaps of world right here, » Diab told Al Jazeera. « I’m making an try to reintegrate abet to extra special, extra special existence. »

He hadn’t stepped exterior for two years. For the two hours or so a day that he become as soon as brought out of his solitary confinement, he become as soon as brought 15 metres faraway from his cell to « a bigger cage » known as « La Dash ».

« You assemble no longer concentrate on the sky; you merely concentrate on a a part of the ceiling of the cage, » Diab defined.

« It’s literally a cage. You’ve gotten a rooster fence on the ceiling and a limited window on the facet and we were 10 of us in [a space of] 20sq metres. Two sq. metres per individual. And they known as it a ‘sail’. »

Kafkaesque case

Diab, a Lebanese Canadian become as soon as wrongly labelled a « terrorist », accused of involvement within the 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris that killed four of us.

He become as soon as arrested in Canada in 2008 at the seek info from of French authorities and placed under draconian bail conditions earlier than his extradition to France in 2014.

Nonetheless, a trial become as soon as under no conditions held. On the total described by attorneys, rights groups, and media as a « Kafkaesque case », there become as soon as under no conditions any credible evidence supplied against him.

Diab’s handwriting didn’t match the suspect’s, nor his fingerprints, palm print or physical description.

French investigative judges again and again stated that there would possibly be « consistent evidence » that Diab become as soon as in Beirut, writing his tests at the time of the attack in Paris, which Diab has maintained all the tactic by approach to.

Hassan Diab enjoys time along with his kids after a 10-yr ordeal [Courtesy of justiceforhassandiab.org]

Despite an overwhelming evidence of his innocence, Diab become as soon as imprisoned for 1,154 days.

Per Canada’s extradition legislation, a individual would perhaps also be extradited handiest when the foreign country has credible, safe evidence to hang the case to trial.

Nonetheless, France under no conditions had a credible case against Diab to inaugurate with.

Diab become as soon as extradited despite the incontrovertible fact that Canadian extradition whisper Robert Maranger warned the evidence against him become as soon as « illogical, very problematic, convoluted, very complex, with conclusions which can perhaps be suspect ».

« The potentialities of conviction within the context of a advantageous trial seem no longer going, » Maranger predicted.

Nonetheless, as the extradition whisper, Maranger handiest « dedicated » Diab for extradition.

Own Nicholson, Canada’s justice minister at the time, held the final veto for extradition.

Nicholson become as soon as the handiest safe who had total discretion and, no matter Maranger’s warnings, he gave the inexperienced light for Diab’s extradition.

With his name at final cleared, Diab and his supporters are calling for a public inquiry and to amend the extradition legislation so that no other Canadian experiences the the same injustice.

Canadian extradition legislation stipulates that Canadians would perhaps also be sent for trial in other nations, nonetheless no longer to languish for years and years with out trial, with out one thing, merely waiting and within the cease, ‘Oh, sorry! It become as soon as a mistake.’

Hassan Diab, wrongfully accused Lebanese Canadian professor

« The extradition legislation is above the Canadian criminal legislation, nonetheless it will also soundless be the opposite manner around, » Diab acknowledged.

« What applies to Canadians right here can also soundless recount to other areas … we are trying to claim, ‘enough is enough.’

« Canadian extradition legislation stipulates that Canadians would perhaps also be sent for trial in other nations, nonetheless no longer to languish for years and years with out trial with out one thing, merely waiting and within the cease, [to say] ‘Oh, sorry! It become as soon as a mistake.' »

The extradition act areas a low threshold for foreign nations to seek info from folks and a high bar for the accused to mutter their innocence. France become as soon as no longer even required to get sworn testimony against Diab.

« I argue that this become as soon as no longer a case France become as soon as willing to hang a explore at. This become as soon as an ongoing investigation, » acknowledged Diab’s Canadian lawyer, Donald Bayne.

« When the latest extradition act become as soon as handed, within the discussions in parliament that led as much as it, the justice minister at the time promised Canadians in parliament that this act become as soon as no longer to enable foreign nations to get their hands on Canadians for the motive of detaining them for foreign investigation.

« The language he pale become as soon as – no Canadians will languish in a foreign jail all the tactic by approach to a foreign investigation pursuant to an extradition. That is exactly what took situation in Dr Diab’s case. Canadian courts merely no longer famend that, » Bayne acknowledged.