Attack on rue Copernic: the only suspect definitively returned to the assizes
Hassan Diab, here, January 17, 2018, is the only suspect found by justice for the attack on rue Copernic in Paris.
He will be sent back to the assizes.
Lars Hagberg AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The trial of the 1980 attack against the synagogue on rue Copernic, in Paris, will take place: the only suspect found by justice, Hassan Diab, saw his final appeal rejected Wednesday by the Court of Cassation.
The attack left 4 dead and 46 wounded near a synagogue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
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On October 3, 1980, for the first time since World War II, people were killed in France in an attack by the explosion of a bomb on a motorcycle targeting the Jewish community in Paris.
Unclaimed, the attack was attributed by the investigation to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations (PFLP-OS).
Since then, only one suspect has been found: Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian academic, identified in 1999 by French investigators on the basis of his passport, found in 1981 in Rome on a member of the PFLP-OS.
Extradited
from Canada at the end of 2014, after a long judicial standoff, and
imprisoned in France
, he returned to his country as soon as the anti-terrorism investigating judges were dismissed on January 12, 2018, for lack of sufficient evidence, but against the opinion of the prosecution.
But in a considerable turnaround, this dismissal was invalidated three years later by the Paris Court of Appeal, on January 27, to the relief of the victims.
► To read also: Attack on rue Copernicus: dismissal for Hassan Diab, the prosecution appeals
Uncertainty
However, uncertainty reigns over the presence at the trial of the 67-year-old academic, returned to Canada upon his release from prison after the dismissal.
Accused of having planted the bomb, he has never ceased to proclaim his innocence in this case where contradictory indices have been bitterly debated for more than ten years.
The Court of Cassation, without ruling on the value of the charges against him - passport, handwriting expertise, robot portraits and information from the services -, therefore confirmed on Wednesday the holding of his trial before an assize court specially composed for " assassinations, attempted assassinations and aggravated destruction, in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
"
"
This decision does not say anything at the bottom of the file, and we are confident in the fact that the innocence of Hassan Diab will be recognized
", reacted the lawyers of the former student of Beirut.
"
We are entitled to wonder about a certain reluctance of the Court of Cassation in terrorism cases, a fortiori the most serious
", they added.
The lawyer for the synagogue and two families of victims said he was satisfied: "
I must be satisfied while being aware that the file is not finished
", reacted for Me Bernard Cahen.
Canadian hostility
The question of extradition will arise again and could delay a speedy hearing.
The current Canadian government is quite hostile to it, and "
it will therefore be even more complicated
" than for the first extradition request, which ran from 2008 to 2014, added the lawyer.
Canadian lawyer Hassan Diab reacted from Ottawa, citing a parody of justice despite "
clear evidence of Hassan's innocence
."
He denounces "
political pressure
" in this matter.
"
We ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to put an end to this miscarriage of justice,
" added Mr. Don Bayne, in a press release from the Hassan Diab support committee.
The investigation is one of the oldest in French anti-terrorism.
(With
AFP
)
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