Forty-three years after the bomb attack on the synagogue on rue Copernic in Paris, which killed four people and injured dozens in October 1980, the only defendant, Hassan Diab, was sentenced this Friday, April 21 in his absence to life imprisonment.
” Is the accused guilty? “. ” Yes “Replied the special assize court, which sentenced Hassan Diab to the maximum sentence and issued an arrest warrant against him. After three weeks of debates and nearly eight hours of deliberation, the special assize court of Paris decided between the only two possible options in this very singular trial.
At the end of the hearing, Carole Ancona greeted ” a great victory “. On October 3, 1980, she was one of 320 people present in the rue Copernic synagogue when the bomb exploded, killing four and injuring dozens. ” It is true that it is a bit late, but there is always time to do things right, so we are very happy, all the civil parties, with this decision of the court “, she entrusted to the microphone of Laura Martelfrom the RFI France service.
” Impossible mission »
“ It has been proven that in the largest terrorist attack cases, even with questionable and contradictory incriminating evidence, and even with a dismissal order from two of the most experienced investigating judges in France, obtaining an acquittal in this country has become mission impossible “, reacted for his part Me William Boudron, one of Hassan Diab’s lawyers.
The prosecution had requested this life sentence, the only ” conceivable for the 69-year-old Lebanese-Canadian academic, who she says is ” without a doubt “, the author of this anti-Semitic attack almost 43 years ago, and the only one implicated in this file, one of the longest in French anti-terrorism. Not surprisingly either, as the hearing was marked by two antagonistic theses, the defense had pleaded acquittal, asking the five professional magistrates to ” avoid miscarriage of justice “.
The dossier is based primarily on intelligence, which attributed the attack in the 1980s – which was not claimed – to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations (PFLP-OS), a dissident group from the PFLP. After a long suspension of the instruction, new information in 1999 designated the presumed members of the commando, including Hassan Diab, as the one who would have made the bomb before abandoning it in front of the synagogue.
A photo ” central »
Of this defendant, whose chair remained empty in the courtroom, the court will only have seen black and white photos at various ages of his life, comparing them with the composite portraits of the man who had bought the motorcycle used for the attack, drawn by witnesses in 1980. Defense and prosecution will have especially battled around another photograph, that of poor quality of the passport of Hassan Diab, at the heart of the accusation. This passport containing, on dates surrounding the attack, entry and exit stamps from Spain, the country from which the commando would have left according to information, had been seized in 1981 in Rome from a presumed member of the PFLP- BONE. Its existence had not been revealed until 18 years after the fact.
The court held that this ” central piece proved that Hassan Diab belonged to this organization and that ” material elements accredit the information naming him as the bomber. She therefore ruled out the alibis presented by the Lebanese-Canadian, who has always assured that he could not be in France at the time of the events since he was taking his exams at the University of Beirut. The explanations “ variables ” And ” not very credible by Hassan Diab on this passport supposedly lost “Did not carry the conviction of the court, underlined its president, Christophe Petiteau. The defense had retorted, in vain, that no material element, no evidence “did not allow to attest to the presence of the former student of sociology in Paris during the attack.
Hassan Diab was initially dismissed in January 2018. Released, he returned to Canada. This dismissal had been reversed three years later by the Court of Appeal, which had ordered the holding of this trial for assassinations, attempted assassinations and aggravated destruction in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
” The means of appeal can only be effective on the day when the (arrest) warrant is notified to Hassan Diab, who will be able to acquiesce “the decision or y” oppose “, specified President Petiteau. The outcome of a possible new extradition procedure is uncertain, the first, which was completed after six years, having strained diplomatic relations between France and Canada.
(And with AFP)