Responding to today’s French Court of Cassation decision declaring that Hassan Diab must stand trial in the 1980 bombing of a synagogue in Paris, Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International’s English section said:
“The latest ruling in Hassan Diab’s case is deeply disappointing. France’s Court of Cassation has chosen to uphold a Court of Appeal ruling that Hassan Diab must face trial for a case that is clearly based on weak and uncredible evidence. This is not justice.
It is shocking that this ordeal continues to drag on. Hassan Diab spent more than three years in solitary confinement in a prison in France, only for investigating judges to dismiss his charges. Further, a Canadian extradition judge had previously called the evidence ‘very problematic’, ‘convoluted’, ‘illogical’, and ‘suspect’. In fact, there is credible evidence that shows Hassan Diab was in Beirut writing exams at the time of the bombing.
Amnesty International is strongly urging the Canadian government to intervene on behalf of Hassan Diab and his family.
Amnesty International continues to call for justice in the horrific 1980 bombing of the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris. But relentlessly pursuing Hassan Diab is not the way forward.”
