Kafkaesque, cruel, and nightmarish
May 24, 2021 4:06 PM Subscribe
Dr. Hassan Diab is the prime (and only) suspect in a crime he did not commit. His fingerprints, palm prints, and physical description do not match those in the police files. The handwriting analysis, presented as evidence against him during his extradition from Canada, in fact now establishes his innocence. Judges decided eight times that Dr. Diab should be released on bail from the French prison, only to overruled by the Prosecutor. Official documents and witness statements show that he was not even in the France at the time of the 1980 attack. Amnesty International Canada has called Dr. Diab’s experience with the Canadian extradition and French justice systems Kafkaesque, cruel and nightmarish.
Accused of the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue, Dr. Diab was extradited from Canada in 2014 and held in a maximum-security prison in France for over three years without charge, largely in solitary confinement. In 2018 he returned to Canada after French magistrates declared that the evidence against him was “not convincing enough” to send him to trial. In a shocking reversal, the Paris Appeal Court in January 2021 overturned the decision to dismiss the case, and ordered that he stand trial. Dr. Diab fought the decision to the Court of Cassation, France’s court of final appeal. On Wednesday, the Court upheld the order — against the recommendation of its top legal advisor.
In a case where legal decisions appear to have been motivated by politics and the pursuit of a scapegoat rather than justice, Dr. Diab’s fate could now rest in the hands of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau.
Accused of the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue, Dr. Diab was extradited from Canada in 2014 and held in a maximum-security prison in France for over three years without charge, largely in solitary confinement. In 2018 he returned to Canada after French magistrates declared that the evidence against him was “not convincing enough” to send him to trial. In a shocking reversal, the Paris Appeal Court in January 2021 overturned the decision to dismiss the case, and ordered that he stand trial. Dr. Diab fought the decision to the Court of Cassation, France’s court of final appeal. On Wednesday, the Court upheld the order — against the recommendation of its top legal advisor.
In a case where legal decisions appear to have been motivated by politics and the pursuit of a scapegoat rather than justice, Dr. Diab’s fate could now rest in the hands of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau.
Holy mother of gods. What a travesty.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:32 PM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:32 PM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
As long as prosecutors are judged and promoted on providing guilty verdicts rather than justice, this will continue.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:43 PM on May 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:43 PM on May 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
I'm willing to believe that Dr. Diab is guilty -- but after that stunt with the handwriting analysis, I'd have trouble trusting anything the prosecution said.
posted by Slothrup at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Slothrup at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
We are in a world that we have largely given over to authoritarian police states. These people (prosecutors & police) have too much damned power.
posted by evilDoug at 8:12 PM on May 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by evilDoug at 8:12 PM on May 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
And then there is the Meng Wanzhou extradition case, where China is testifying that the evidence is flawed -- just as in the Diab case. But Canadian Extradition Courts seemingly cannot weigh that evidence. Two Canadians are being held hostage by China in retaliation for the Meng arrest.
posted by CCBC at 11:49 PM on May 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by CCBC at 11:49 PM on May 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
greatgefilte, I was thinking Dreyfus. Obviously, that was based in anti-Semitism, and this time around it's islamophobia in a sloppy effort to defend Jews, but I'm beginning to think there are some structural problems which aren't about specific prejudices.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 3:34 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 3:34 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
لماذا ليس كلاهما؟
posted by lalochezia at 4:16 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by lalochezia at 4:16 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
it's islamophobia in a sloppy effort to defend Jews
I'm sure French Jews would be better defended by finding the actual perpetrators. Securing a conviction in an otherwise-closed case is, however, a very good means of defending prosecutors' jobs.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:30 AM on May 25, 2021 [6 favorites]
I'm sure French Jews would be better defended by finding the actual perpetrators. Securing a conviction in an otherwise-closed case is, however, a very good means of defending prosecutors' jobs.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:30 AM on May 25, 2021 [6 favorites]
لماذا ليس كلاهما؟
Why not both?
in case anyone was wondering
posted by adept256 at 7:09 AM on May 25, 2021 [4 favorites]
Why not both?
in case anyone was wondering
posted by adept256 at 7:09 AM on May 25, 2021 [4 favorites]
Judges decided eight times that Dr. Diab should be released on bail from the French prison, only to overruled by the Prosecutor.
Can someone knowledgeable about the French legal system explain this? The prosecutor has unilateral authority to overrule a judicial order there?
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:48 AM on May 25, 2021
Can someone knowledgeable about the French legal system explain this? The prosecutor has unilateral authority to overrule a judicial order there?
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:48 AM on May 25, 2021
it's islamophobia in a sloppy effort to defend Jews
We can't just absolve the agency of israel and jewish groups that lobbied for his incarceration. This isn't Dreyfus, in the sense that it is not just the French government doing things on their own, without external motivation.
This case makes me particularly angry because he was picked up from my school when I was still going there. The administration abandoned him pretty quick. At the time, I thought about how oddly similar it felt to Maher Arar, and how so many voices had mysteriously crawled out from under rocks to declare that it is different this time, because someone's head had to roll for antisemitic violence. The editorials were vicious. Our islamophobic public is complicit in the torture of so many. And frankly, it's embarrassing how we can't seem to unify to hold cops in Ottawa accountable for beating people of colour to death, while the city's institutions will happily sacrifice someone on behalf of the israeli lobby.
posted by constantinescharity at 8:07 AM on May 25, 2021 [8 favorites]
We can't just absolve the agency of israel and jewish groups that lobbied for his incarceration. This isn't Dreyfus, in the sense that it is not just the French government doing things on their own, without external motivation.
This case makes me particularly angry because he was picked up from my school when I was still going there. The administration abandoned him pretty quick. At the time, I thought about how oddly similar it felt to Maher Arar, and how so many voices had mysteriously crawled out from under rocks to declare that it is different this time, because someone's head had to roll for antisemitic violence. The editorials were vicious. Our islamophobic public is complicit in the torture of so many. And frankly, it's embarrassing how we can't seem to unify to hold cops in Ottawa accountable for beating people of colour to death, while the city's institutions will happily sacrifice someone on behalf of the israeli lobby.
posted by constantinescharity at 8:07 AM on May 25, 2021 [8 favorites]
We can't just absolve the agency of israel and jewish groups that lobbied for his incarceration.
I don't see any mention of these groups or this lobbying in the articles linked above, but in any event: the prosecutors are the ones with the agency here, not the alleged Jewish lobbyists.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:42 AM on May 26, 2021
I don't see any mention of these groups or this lobbying in the articles linked above, but in any event: the prosecutors are the ones with the agency here, not the alleged Jewish lobbyists.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:42 AM on May 26, 2021
« Older Electric Blue IKEA | I get the news I need from the weather report Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by dobbs at 6:08 PM on May 24, 2021 [10 favorites]