In his article on the Hassan Diab case, entitled, No evidence? No problem! Matthew Behrens shows how the entire Hassan Diab case is full of holes, and time and again the judicial system keeps deciding to release him, and then, mysteriously, reversing their decision without explanation.
Recounting the history of the case, in which Diab was arrested in 2008–almost three decades after the fact–for the bombing of a synagogue that occurred in 1980, Behrens writes:
French investigations into this act of terror, originally attributed to far-right groups as part of a string of similar bombings across Europe in the 1970s and ‘80s, had long since gone cold. Three decades later the crime was being pinned on Diab, a Canadian citizen of Lebanese birth, even though he did not share the finger and palm prints, or the physical description, of the original suspect.
This is intriguing. I researched articles on the Paris bombing, and, according to an article written in US newspaper JTA just after the attack, a neo-Nazi group called the European National Fascists had claimed responsibility for the attack. First question: How did the perpetrator shift from a neo-Nazi group that admitted culpability, to a Muslim Canadian teacher, oceans away and decades later?
Googling a little more, I learned that the European National Fascists (a.k.a. European National Front) became the Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF) in the 1980s. (Maybe they took a marketing course.) Their leader is one Roberto Fiore, an avowed neo-Nazi. According to the Swedish newspaper Expo Idag, APF has connections to the Assad regime in Syria and, according to Wikipedia, is in tight with Putin’s Russia.
Hassan Diab was extradited to France in 2014, the same year that the European Parliament tightened up its rules governing funding for European-level political parties. The aim was to prevent economic support going to parties that contravene the EU’s fundamental human rights principles. But in spite of the new rules, in January 2016, European Parliament granted some €400,000 to the far-right APF.
The APF has leaders from several European Nations, including Nick Griffin, Deputy Chairman, of the U.K., a person “notorious for spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories”.
Which leads me to wonder, Who wants Hassan Diab kept in custody, and for what reason? Could it be that, as long as he is detained, the cold case of the 1980 Synagogue bombing will remain just that, and the world will never know the truth of who originally bombed the synagogue? Perhaps the powers-that-be know, and want to protect the perpetrator, or perhaps someone just needs a convenient scapegoat? (Muslims being the scapegoat du jour in our times.) Behrens points out that the “intelligence” (how did this word get so misused) that was used to have Diab extradited was obtained through torture—an illegal practice that should automatically disqualify the intelligence. How ironic also that Canada allowed Diab to be extradited, ostensibly so as not to snub France, when France itself does not allow its citizens to be extradited?
Many questions, that lead to more questions… Nonetheless, CUSJ President has written once again to a Canadian politician, this time Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland. Maybe she will shed some light on the shadowy case of Hassan Diab.