Hassan Diab (sociologist)

Hassan Naim Diab (Arabic: حسن نعیم دياب; born November 20, 1953) is a Lebanese-Canadian citizen, convicted as a terrorist in a controversial April 2023 French in absentia trial. He was convicted in absentia of having planted the explosive in the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing.^[2]

In 2008, France officially requested his extradition for his alleged involvement in the 1980 synagogue bombing. Diab's appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal was rejected and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case. After a 6 year legal battle, on April 4, 2012, the Minister of Justice, Rob Nicholson, ordered Diab extradited to France. On November 14, 2014, Hassan was extradited from Canada to France where he was under house arrest for 2 years and two months without trial while the investigation continued.^[3]

On January 12, 2018 the charges against Diab were dismissed, after a judge said he found evidence for Diab's presence in Lebanon at the time of the attack.^[4] Two days later, he returned to Canada.^[5] The French Anti-Terrorism Prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing the judge made major mistakes. In January 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal reversed the dismissal of charges and ordered that he stand trial. Hassan Diab refused to attend the trial and his lawyers attempted to stop it. On May 19, 2021, France's most important judicial court, the Court of Cassation ordered the trial to go ahead. On April 21, 2023, Diab was convicted of terrorism charges in absentia and sentenced to life in prison.^[6][2] The decision was reached unanimously.^[7] The court, composed of six french judges, issued an international arrest warrant.^[8]

Evidence presented against Diab in France included a sketch of the bomber that resembled him. A hotel registration form completed with fake information had similar handwriting to Diab, though it appeared efforts had been made to change it. A fingerprint on the form was not Diab's. ^[9] A passport in his name was also discovered in the bag of a senior terrorist.^[7] The passport also had entry and exit stamps from Spain, where the terrorist team is believed to have fled after bombing the synagogue.^[10]

Diab had consistently contested the accusation by saying he was in Lebanon at the time of the terrorist attack, and that he had witnesses and evidence to prove it, as confirmed by French investigative magistrates prior to his release in 2018.^[11][12] He compared his case to the Dreyfus Affair, creating controversy.^[7] The court assessed his alibi as having no credibility. ^[7] Diab's supporters said there was no material element to prove that he, then a sociology student, was in France at the time. His lawyers said he had been sitting exams at a university in Lebanon and could not have used the passport, which he said he had lost.^[13]