Upwards of 60 people gathered in a classroom at Carleton on Nov. 11 to watch a screening of the documentary Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story, and participate in a panel discussion about former Carleton professor Hassan Diab’s extradition to France.
Diab was extradited in 2014 to face charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and destruction of property with an explosive or incendiary substance, according to a CBC article. The charges stem from a bombing at a synagogue in Paris in 1980, which killed four people.
Samiha Rayeda, the volunteer outreach and programming co-ordinator with the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) at Carleton, said there is a connection between Diab and Carleton students.
“This event is our way of letting students know about the case and how they can further get involved,” Rayeda said. OPIRG was one of the sponsors of the event.
The documentary takes its audience through the process of Diab’s struggle, painting him as an innocent man, accused of terrorist crimes based entirely on questionable secret intelligence evidence and handwriting analysis. It begins in 2007 with a visit from a French journalist, and ends with Diab’s extradition on Nov. 14, 2014.
Diab has spent the two years since his official extradition to France in prison, without any formal convictions.
The documentary was followed by an hour-long Q&A-style panel discussion, in which Maeve McMahon, Bill Skidmore, and Peter Gose—all former colleagues of Diab’s at Carleton—took questions from audience members.
Gose said during his introductory remarks to the documentary that much of the evidence used against Diab would not be considered valid in a Canadian court, as secret intelligence is not deemed reliable evidence in many countries.
He added the handwriting analysis which linked Diab and his former wife to the bombing was discredited by numerous external professionals. But Gose said the presiding judge still felt he had to allow extradition.
According to Gose, who is also a member of the Hassan Diab Support Committee, the committee views the extradition as “what we view as a wrongful conviction in the making.”
The panelists took the time to answer clarification questions, as well as deeper questions of analysis.
“It’s a way of supporting the people who are suffering, beyond the individual who is incarcerated or threatened with extradition,” Skidmore said, in response to a question about the importance of raising awareness about Diab’s case.
Roua Aljied, a fourth-year engineering student at Carleton, said she perceives Diab’s struggle as a failing of the Canadian justice system.
“Canada isn’t doing enough to protect its citizens, because this isn’t the first time this has happened and it’s likely not going to be the last. Its been going on for too long,” she said.
As the panel discussion came to an end, attendees were invited to sign a petition protesting Diab’s extradition.
