Counsel For the Defense
Former part-time University of Ottawa Professor Hassan Diab has much to lose, he must obviously feel, if he is extradited to France, as per the request to Canadian authorities of French judicial authorities. French judicial authorities who are convinced that they are in possession of evidence sufficiently stable and useful to mark this man as a prime suspect in the bombing of the Copernic synagogue in Paris, in 1980.
This crime of terrorism, meant to convey to the Jewish diaspora that no Jew is safe as long as Israel 'occupies' territory that Palestinians and the greater Arab community within the Middle East are determined to recapture, for as far as they are concerned Israel exists as an unlawful entity and peace and good order will not be restored until and unless 'Palestine' is once again in the hands of Palestinian Arabs.
Who will, under a newly-established sovereign state of Palestine, where once stood Israel,and incorporating the other two-thirds of the territories, permit Jews who traditionally lived in the area as the original "Palestinians", to reside there still, under the aegis of a new Palestinian government. They would, of course, be elderly and presumably quiescent. All other Jews must decamp for they will not be welcome under this new state administration.
That is an ongoing story, underwriting the two-state solution which appears on the surface of this intractable problem, which gives a veneer of legitimacy to the 'struggle' of the Palestinians to achieve that which should be theirs by right-of-birth-and-prior-occupation. Ever since the State of Israel became a reality, its neighbours have attempted every type of violent assault to dislodge it from the geography.
The establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization by its former head, Yasser Arafat, was just one additional tool of conflict and combat in a guerrilla war to convince the Jewish State it had no business residing in the Middle East. Most Palestinians applauded the work of the PLO, and many joined its ranks. Either to support it by force of arms, or to be part of what appeared to be a new and effective political movement.
One that was dedicated not to diplomacy, offering an attempt at compromise bringing potential solutions to the conflict to result in a fair and just division of the contested land, but to violence. As part of that violent outlook meant to lead irrevocably to wearying the enemy's conventional army by the tactics of an elusive guerrilla force that could melt easily into the greater civilian population that supported it, the front was widened beyond the Middle East.
France now, with the tenacious determination of a particular terrorism specialist, Marc Trévidic, a 45-year-old French examining magistrate, is convinced it has all the evidence it requires to launch a credible trial against Lebanese-Canadian Hassan Diab. Mr. Diab has continuously expressed his innocent, shocked disbelief that he would be targeted, claiming total innocence, complete non-involvement in the bombing.
His defence lawyer, Donald Bayne, has implicit trust in the veracity of his client's statements of innocence. And in pursuit of his goal of persuading Justice Maranger of the innocence of his client, has cast aspersions on the French judicial system, Justice Trévidic, and the quality and sources of the evidence gathered to be used in a trial, should Mr. Diab be extradited as requested, despite the best efforts of his defence counsel.
Someone impersonating Lawyer Donald Bayne has been going about writing scathing comments on blogs, imputing odd motives to people watching the unfolding events, and relieving themselves of their opinions, as is common to a society that values freedom of expression. Someone by the name of "Donald", feels free to label bloggers 'liars', when they disagree with his singular version of events. As per the following:
"Although Mr. Diab has strenuously and repeatedly denied ever being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO offshoot, his family did inform investigators that they had all belonged." (A direct quote from the blog being commented upon titled "Origins of Evidence", posted on "Politic", 12 November 2010.)
YOU are a blatant lier. No such allegation exists anywhere. This is purely your own invention. It appears you wish to follow in the footsteps of the Grand Inquisitor (Trevidic) by making things up. I challenge you to provide one iota of evidence that anyone in Hassan Diab's family has ever stated that they are a member of PFLP. Do you not have even one shred of decency? If you really care about the victims of Copernic then you should give a damn about the truth. Sadly, it appears you do not care about either. (And so ends the diatribe. But because the blog's author could not verify what had been repeated, and not verbatim, from memory, the offending statement was removed.)
One might think that Donald Bayne, defense attorney for Mr. Diab would be horrified, were he to become aware that someone might be impersonating him, trolling the Internet to find views that he found offensive, and vigorously commenting on them, insisting people are "liers" (wonder if that's anything like being a liar?), and challenging the writer's sense of decency?
One might also feel that it is precisely because the truth is being sought that Mr. Diab should return to France to stand trial; if he is innocent he will be a free man once again. Sadly, this "Donald" who withholds his full identity from scrutiny, appears not to care about either the truth or the yet-haunted victims of the Copernic synagogue bombing who desperately seek closure to their nightmare.
And for those who might be interested in pursuing the little drama being carried out in a downtown Ottawa court of law, the series of very interesting articles written by The Ottawa Citizen's Chris Cobb might make good reading - for any who missed their appearance, last week. A link appears below. On the other hand, the writer of this blog thought that in response to the accusations leveled by "Donald", a few sentences written by Chris Cobb might pique interest:
Trévidic’s interest in the Copernic case was apparently spurred by information unearthed in police files of the former East Germany.Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Paris+blast+Part+Investigation/3792139/story.html#ixzz15CTHIR8vHis hands-on approach to investigation is articulated, according to French newspaper Le Monde, by a sign in his office: “Assis, debout, mais pas couché” (“Sitting, standing, but not lying down”).
“When I take on a case,” he said, “I reread everything from A to Z and create spreadsheets to capture any existing paths and any that may not have been uncovered.”
One uncovered path led him to Lebanon, where he apparently found and interviewed Diab’s father, sister and friends from his youth.
According to lawyer Bernard Cahen, Diab’s friends said they were all members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was not illegal.
Labels: Canada, Crisis Politics, Justice, Terrorism, Traditions
posted by Pieface | 1:26 PM
4 Comments:
PART ONE of TWO
At the risk of wasting my time, I put forward the following points for your consideration.
1. Your blog does not permit "anonymous" comments, so there is nothing particularly “anonymous” about my response. I simply filled in the comment form as required. Just because I happen to have the same first name as Mr. Bayne is certainly no reason to jump out of your chair and declare that I am "impersonating" Mr. Diab’s attorney. “Donald”, just like “Hassan”, is a common name. It is perhaps telling that you--just like Mr. Trevidic--assume that you have made a positive identification based on a common name.
2. In Canada, anyone facing extradition has the RIGHT to an extradition hearing. Your suggestion that Mr. Diab should forego the exercise of this RIGHT, especially given the shenanigans we’ve seen on the French side, is either misinformed, presumptuous, or both.
3. It is ironic in the extreme that you characterize my views as “singular” when, in fact, it is you who have produced singular views. When challenged to provide an iota of evidence to support your unsubstantiated claim that members of Mr. Diab’s family belong to a Palestinian political organization, you find it necessary to retract this statement. Why? Because you can find no evidence to support your “singular view”.
In the same vein, it should be noted that lawyer Bernard Cahen is representing the families of the Copernic victims. Therefore, of course, he is not an unbiased source regarding purported PFLP connections. You know Mr. Cahen’s allegiances but intentionally omit them from your blog. This strikes me as reminiscent of the self-serving editing that the learned Inquisitor engaged in when he constructed the record of the case.
4. Another irony comes in your recitation of the Ottawa Citizen article on France’s “dogged” investigator (Mr. Trevidic). Particularly ironic is Chris Cobb’s misinterpretation of the sign in Mr. Trevidic’s office: “Assis, debout, mais pas couché” (“Sitting, standing, but not lying down”). Whether or not Mr. Trevidic posted this sign in his office to inform visitors of his “hands-on approach” to investigative work is open to debate. What is certain is how this sign found its way into his office (something Mr. Cobb does not disclose, either because he does not know or does not care).
Early in 2010, Mr. Trevidic participated in a demonstration of magistrates and other court personnel to express opposition to Nicholas Sarkozy’s proposed judiciary reforms. “Assis, debout, mais pas couché” is the slogan that was put on signs carried by the marching magistrates.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jo2ptwHyoF0FZlZgUPrBF-rX-XLA
A key provision of these now-abandoned reforms was to abolish the examining magistrate (juge d’instruction). A main reason for this reform was to avoid colossal miscarriages of justice like the Outreau Affair. In the wake of this national scandal, the French people wanted to address flaws in the juge d’instruction as a legal institution.
PART TWO of TWO
In case you missed the irony here: In pursuing his misguided prosecution of Mr. Diab, Marc Trevidic has embarked upon his own version of the Outreau Affair. In at least one significant respect, Mr. Trevidic’s transgressions are much worse. The juge d’instruction responsible for the Outreau Affiar was young, inexperienced, and under-resourced. By contrast, Mr. Trevidic is highly experienced, he does not work alone (his sidekick is the even more experienced Yves Jannier), and he enjoys access to the abundant resources available to a juge d’instruction operating in the upper echelons of the Paris judiciary.
The list of reasons why Marc Trevidic ought to carefully reevaluate the merits of his case against Mr. Diab has only grown longer over time. For starters, as almost everyone seems to have forgotten, France’s much-ballyhooed handwriting evidence has demonstrated a very checkered track record. France’s current handwriting submissions are Round 2. France withdrew its first set of handwriting reports in May 2010 after experts for the defence submitted evaluations demonstrating the appalling shoddiness of France’s work. The dogged magistrate could have kept this opinion evidence in for the extradition hearing. Instead, he threw in his hand and started all over again. He waited almost six months to do this (December 2009 to May 2010), thereby scuttling the Ontario Superior Court’s June dates for the extradition hearing.
So, here we are nearly one year after French investigators received the defence’s response to their handwriting “evidence”, finally ready to get on with the extradition hearing. (I suppose your explanation for the two-year delay in getting the extradition hearing started would be “foot-dragging by the defence”.) Let’s just see if France’s new handwriting report fairs any better than the first set.
Then there’s all the other whopping reasons (nine, to be exact) detailed in Mr. Bayne’s abuse of process factum. Just one example: Bayne has now proven with virtual certainty that France’s key passport evidence is utterly worthless. In short, he has presented to the court documents from France’s own materials showing the impossibility that either the false passport or the real passport could have been used to enter France. http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2010/11/hassan-diab-french-deception.html
There’s two biggies right there. How many more reasons does Mr. Trevidic need to make a reality check?
Oh, and let’s not forget the manifestly unreliable secret unsourced intelligence that undergirds France’s entire case. Was I wrong to understand that France’s record of the case must summarize the EVIDENCE purportedly available for trial in France? What the heck is intelligence THEORY and supposition doing in there?
But, as you say, Mr. Diab should simply give French investigators the benefit of the doubt, accept at face value Marc Trevidic’s assertion that he is merely engaging in an unbiased search for the truth, and cast aside his RIGHT to an extradition hearing. After all, why should anyone believe the scales of justice might be just a wee bit tilted against him in France when the man driving this investigation is doing such careful and scrupulous work?
At the end of the day, can you not at least begin see why the side you disagree with is justifiably suspicious of the methods and motives of French investigators? Under these circumstances, don’t you think it would be just a little reckless to jump on the next flight to Paris and hand yourself over for trial?
You are indeed wasting your time, Mr. Pratt. However, it is very nice for Mr. Diab that he has the loyalty of an old friend. As a friend of Mr. Diab's it is not surprising that you rise to his defense.
Personally, I have no argument against anyone seeking what is his due; Mr. Diab, under Canadian law is exercising his right to challenge France's extradition request; if he really wants to clear his name, he might wish to defend himself through a trial that France is prepared to mount. I do have faith in the justice system of Western countries.
We all have singular views; you yours, I mine; there is no argument there. If I choose to retract a statement that is a reflection of my desire to be as honest as possible.
Mr. Cahen, like you, is loyal to a concept; you believe in your friend's innocence, Mr. Cahen believes in the utility of justice served.
Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, says if Diab is extradited to France he will get a fair trial.
“If he is found not guilty, then so be it,” he says, “but it remains a thorn in our side that we don’t know who was responsible.”
If Bayne succeeds, Diab will go free for the first time in two years. If not, the extradition hearing continues.
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