A Carleton University professor convicted of terrorism charges in France in 2023 is no longer employed by the Ottawa university.
Hassan Diab was convicted in absentia in 2023 of orchestrating a fatal synagogue bombing in France that killed four people and injured 40 others.
The attack occurred in October 1980 after a bomb was placed on a motorcycle outside a Paris synagogue.
Diab was teaching a course at Carleton entitled Social Justice in Action, citing his own Canadian extradition case in his lectures up until only a few months ago.
When discovered several months ago, this was met with strong backlash from Canada’s Jewish community and advocacy groups including B’nai Brith.
“The university has ignored B’nai Brith’s formal request to terminate his position, allowing Diab to remain in a position of authority over students,” wrote B’nai Brith on X last November.
This week, the university confirmed that Diab was no longer employed.
“Hassan Diab is a former part-time contract instructor who taught a course at the university last fall. He is not in the employment of Carleton. Please note that, other than current employment status, the university does not disclose personal employment information due to privacy considerations,” the school told National Post in a statement Thursday.
Still, there are several advocacy groups who’d like to see Diab extradited to France to face trial, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which has called upon federal Justice Minister Arif Virani to do just that.
“Canada’s Jewish community expects those found guilty of antisemitic attacks by independent courts of sister democratic countries to be held accountable,” CIJA wrote on X.
Diab’s case first began making its way through courts in both France and Canada in 2008 based on circumstantial evidence, including comparative handwritten notes.
He initially became a suspect in 1982, but the case went cold until 1999, when an unnamed informant told French authorities of a similar bombing in Antwerp, Belgium that linked back to Diab as well.
France’s case to have Diab extradited from Canada was called “weak” by the Canadian judge who presided over it but it still went ahead in 2011.
“The case presented by the Republic of France against Mr. Diab is a weak case; the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial, seem unlikely,” wrote Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger at the time. “However, it matters not that I hold this view.”
Diab was extradited in 2014 and remained detained in France for the next three years.
During that period, elements of the circumstantial evidence were deemed unreliable, including the handwriting comparison and an alibi that Diab was in Spain at the time of that attack. He was released and returned to Canada.
French prosecutors would later appeal the case in 2021 with newly discovered evidence that proved his alibi to be false, ordering Diab to return to France to stand trial.
The decision was upheld by France’s top court, although Diab didn’t show, choosing to remain in Canada.
Still, he was convicted in absentia on all charges in 2023 and sentenced to life in prison with a warrant issued for his arrest.
It remains unknown if France issued an extradition request for Diab as the Department of Justice said these matters are “confidential state-to-state communications.”
Additionally, the Liberal government refused to confirm whether they would fulfill such a request if it had been issued.
Diab’s lawyer, Don Bayne, declined True North’s request for comment.