On October 3, 1980, an attack on the Paris synagogue on rue Copernic left four dead and forty-six injured.
Forty years after this anti-Semitic attack, the alleged bomber, the Lebanese-Canadian Hassan Diab, 67, is referred to a special assize court.
So decided on Wednesday the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal by reversing the dismissal of the anti-terrorism judges pronounced in January 2018.
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Attack of the rue Copernic: the risk of the fiasco after forty years of instruction
The way is therefore open for a trial in which the conditions under which the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations (PFLP-OS) sent its killers to France would be detailed.
But there is still a long way to go.
The defense, provided by Messrs William Bourdon, Apolline Cagnat and Amélie Lefebvre, has announced its intention to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
The lawyers denounced a decision
"senseless, because it is totally contrary to the law and to the file, and therefore draws its inspiration only from political correctness"
.
Uncertain procedure
According to a lawyer, this appeal, whatever the result, could extend the procedure
"by two good years"
.
And delay Hassan Diab's extradition request to Canadian authorities.
Incidentally, a gruesome situation: Judge Marc Trévidic, who played a key role in speeding up the investigation, requested Hassan Diab's extradition in 2008 and obtained it in… 2014. After three years of detention provisional, and as soon as the surprising dismissal rendered by Marc Trévidic's successors, Hassan Diab returned to Ottawa.
Canada, where the accused now has many supporters, would therefore have to grant a second extradition… The procedure, uncertain as to its outcome, will in any case take more months or years.
And it will then be necessary to hear the trial, an expert predicting that the debates could therefore open at best by 2025.
Read also:
How to rebuild the victims of an attack
For now, the decision of the court of appeal has been warmly welcomed by the civil parties.
Lawyer for the synagogue and the families of Jean-Michel Barbé and Aliza Shagrir, who died on October 3, 1980, Me Bernard Cahen considers that
"it is a satisfaction to obtain a trial, almost the end of a long fight"
.
Corinne Adler, who, 13, was celebrating her Bat Mitzvah on the day of the attack, said she was
“very moved and relieved.
I was convinced that a trial would take place.
I hope from the accused's explanations, an understanding of the context.
And I hope that this will also serve as a lesson for current terrorism ”
.
At his side his lawyer, Me David Père, also counsel for the French Association of Victims of Terrorism, underlines
“that the civil parties are relieved after extremely difficult developments.
We are determined, this is only the beginning of the legal fight.
But justice will pass in a public trial and we will be present for those who are no longer there ”
.
Because those absent will continue to haunt the Copernicus affair.
Civil parties who disappeared during too long a procedure.
And the terrorists all identified by investigators but remained beyond the reach of justice.
Like the leader of the PFLP-OS, who is said to still live in southern Lebanon.
