Evidence: German Intelligence

"My client is in good spirits and I would say in combative spirits."
"We will fight the charges and hopefully the fact that there is no evidence against my client will prevail and he will be set free."
"We want a trial to prove that, once again, the dossier is empty."
Stephane Bonifassi, defence lawyer, Paris

Palestinian-Lebanese-Canadian Hassan Diab's long journey from seeking shelter within Canada, opposing an extradition request from France to have him stand trial for his alleged role in a terrorist bombing in Paris in 1980, to finally find himself on an Air France jet after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his last and final appeal against extradition, has him now facing that trial he had averted since 2006.

Having so long expressed his innocence of the charges lodged against him, and vowing not to return, claiming he would not be treated justly under the French legal system, he has now managed to rally himself, pledging to continue his fight to prove his innocence. In good spirits, and planning to prove his innocence.

He was never, ever, a member of the PFLP, he claimed. Clearly, he was mistaken for someone else. His name is such a common one, such mix-ups do occur. He has nothing against Jews, he is a man of peace for he has no patience for violence and feels people should live together in harmony. His life in Canada has been exemplary; he a part-time lecturer of sociology.

So, what took so long? Why tie up the courts with his interminable appeals if he is so certain that he will be found innocent?

French authorities appear to believe that he was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist offshoot of Fatah, Yasser Arafat's liberation movement. And as a PFLP member employing terrorist tactics to attack Jews anywhere in the world, in their battle against the State of Israel, occupying Palestinian geography. That information came courtesy of German intelligence authorities.

On Oct. 3, 1980, a bomb blast killed four people at a Jewish synagogue on Rue Copernic in Paris.

A file photo shows firefighters standing next to cars destroyed following a bomb attack at the rue Copernic synagogue in Paris that killed four people. French daily newspaper Le Figaro reported October 11, 2007 that French police have identified a 55 year-old Palestinian man now living in Canada as the suspected perpetrator of the 1980 bomb attack. The man, who was not named in the report, was traced after German intelligence officials acquired a membership list of the now-defunct extremist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

 

To that end, someone driving a motorcycle with explosives on board, detonated those explosives, in the process killing four French citizens and injuring scores of other French citizens, Jews and otherwise in the targeting of the Synagogue on rue Copernic. Mr. Diab faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and destruction of property with explosive or incendiary substances.

He now appears certain that he will be able to persuade the court and the prosecution that he is innocent of all charges Good luck to him. Why the change of heart? The transition from declaring that his life will be over should he be returned to a France where a corrupted court proceeding would find him culpable of a crime he did not commit, to the self-assured innocent out to clear his name.

We'll stay tuned....