With shouts of “Hey Rob, do your job,” a group of protesters called on Justice Minister Rob Nicholson Jan. 21 to stop the extradition of former Carleton professor Hassan Diab.
A former lecturer at both Carleton and the University of Ottawa, Diab is accused of being involved in the 1980 bombing of a synagogue in Paris, France, that left four dead and dozens injured. The French government, whose case rests on the assertion that the handwriting of the bomber on a hotel registration card matches that of Diab, has been seeking his extradition since November 2008.
However, Diab insists this is a case of mistaken identity.
Currently, he’s not allowed to leave the Ottawa area and must wear a GPS ankle bracelet.
After committing Diab for extradition in June 2011, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger said “there couldn’t possibly be a conviction assuming a fair trial.”
The Jan. 21 protest was centred around getting Nicholson, who has the power to reject France’s extradition request, to end the process.
“The law says that the minister must refuse ‘unjust and oppressive’ extraditions,” said Matthew Behrens, a representative from Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture. “Handing [Diab] over to France would definitely be unjust and oppressive.”
The protesters attempted to deliver a petition calling on Nicholson to stop Diab’s extradition, but were met with a locked-down justice building. Several minutes of tense negotiation took place between Behrens, Ottawa police and RCMP officers, and the building’s security department.
In the end, the petition was delivered to Department of Justice staff, despite representatives refusing to deal directly with protesters.
As he addressed the small crowd, Diab called his case a “Kafkaesque” nightmare and thanked people for their support.
He asked Nicholson for “Canadian standards of evidence [to] be applied . . . and that [he] be given the same rights to defend [himself] as any other Canadian.”
It’s expected that Nicholson will make his decision by the end of February, but experts have predicted the case will wind up in front of the Supreme Court.
