French officials have 45 days to back up their extradition request
A publication ban has been ordered in the bail hearing for a sociology instructor facing extradition to France in connection with the fatal bombing of a Paris synagogue in 1980.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michel Charbonneau ordered the ban at the request of federal lawyers in the case of Hassan Diab, who was arrested by RCMP officers at his Gatineau, Que., home Thursday at the request of French authorities.
Under Canadian law, French officials have 45 days to provide further legal details to back up their extradition request.
Diab’s name first surfaced in French news reports last year in connection with the 1980 attack that killed four people and injured 20 others.
Diab, who teaches part time at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, has told the Paris daily newspaper Le Figaro he is a victim of mistaken identity.
Diab, 55, is said to hold Lebanese and Canadian passports and to have lived in the U.S. for several years before moving to Canada.
The investigation traces its roots to Oct. 3, 1980, when a bomb hidden in the saddlebags of a parked motorcycle exploded outside the synagogue of the conservative U.L.I.F. group as hundreds of worshippers gathered inside for a Sabbath service.
Three French men and one Israeli woman were killed.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations was blamed at the time. Diab’s name is alleged to have been found on a list of former members of the group obtained by German intelligence.
– The Canadian Press