More than forty years after the events, there will be a trial in the extraordinary case of the attack on the synagogue on rue Copernic which, on October 3, 1980, killed four people and left 46 wounded.
So decided, Wednesday, the Court of Cassation.
Read also:
Canada caring for the suspect of the attack on Copernicus Street
At the beginning of the afternoon, a press release specified that the Court "
rejects the appeal lodged by the indicted person against the judgment of the Paris investigative chamber which overturned the dismissal pronounced by the judges of investigation and who ordered his indictment.
Thus, the applicant for the appeal is definitively referred to the specially composed assize court of Paris to be tried there on the charge of assassinations, attempted assassinations and aggravated destruction, in connection with a terrorist enterprise
”.
New development
Hassan Diab, the alleged bomber who allegedly acted for a Palestinian terrorist group, will therefore be tried by professional magistrates. In its appeal, its defense held that the intelligence notes played too much of a role in this case and that its arguments had not been sufficiently taken into account. In its judgment, the Court of Cassation replied that "
information from the intelligence services, regularly entered in legal proceedings and submitted to adversarial debate, may be taken into account
" without on their own establishing "
a conviction
". In addition, the judgment underlines that the investigating chamber “
responded to the essential articulations of the report of the accused, and, without insufficiency or contradiction, justified his decision
”.
This new judicial development comes after years of proceedings.
Canadian of Lebanese origin, Hassan Diab, 67, was targeted in 2008 by a warrant for the arrest of the examining magistrate Marc Trévidic and arrested in Ottawa.
He was extradited in 2014, indicted in Paris and placed in pre-trial detention.
In 2018, he benefited from a surprising dismissal from Marc Trévidic's successor.
The prosecution appealed but Hassan Diab returned to Canada proclaiming that "
justice was done
".
It was going a little fast in the work, the affair being far from being settled.
To read also:
Attack of the rue Copernic: the risk of the fiasco after forty years of instruction
On January 27, 2021, the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal returned to the dismissal and returned the accused to the assizes.
In essence, the chamber reiterated the argument advanced for years by the anti-terrorism prosecution, the general prosecution and the civil parties: the supporting and exculpatory elements of the case justify a public trial to discuss and decide on the guilt or the innocence of the accused.
Denouncing a denial of justice, the defense filed the appeal dismissed Wednesday.
"His innocence will be recognized"
A new legal fight begins. Living in Canada, will the accused be present at his trial, which is not expected for many months? His Canadian lawyer, Don Bayne, has called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to refuse a second extradition. He added: “
This is all happening because of intense lobbying from important and influential groups in France.
"While specifying that this term of lobbying was aimed at the civil parties who"
lobbied for an innocent person to be tried
".
In Paris, the defenders of Diab, Mes Bourdon, Cagnat and Lefebvre say certain that “(his)
innocence will be recognized
”. Lawyer for the French Association of Victims of Terrorism, Mr. David Père emphasizes for his part that "
more than ever the civil parties remain determined and impatiently await a hearing which will allow justice to pass
." One of the victims, Corinne Adler, who, as a teenager, was in the synagogue on October 3, 1980, said she was “
relieved and moved. It was essential that this anti-Semitic attack lead to a trial, whatever the outcome for the accused
”.