Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has ordered Ottawa university professor Hassan Diab extradited to France, the Citizen learned today.
The long-delayed decision was not expected until later this month.
Diab is wanted by France in connection with the terrorist bombing of a Paris synagogue in October, 1980. Four passersby and numerous people inside and outside the synagogue were injured in what was the first terrorist attack in France since the Second World War.
Diab's lawyer Donald Bayne said today that the minister's decision is "manifestly unreasonable" and he will be appealing — to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Under Canadian Extradition law, a Canadian citizen can only be sent to another country for trial.
Bayne says the French are not ready to go to trial and simply want to continue their investigation.
"It flies in the face of Canadian law," he said.
Diab, arrested in an RCMP swoop three years ago, has said consistently that he is innocent and the victim of mistaken identity. He has been under various degrees of house arrest since.
The minister's decision is essentially a confirmation of a judgment rendered last year by extradition judge Robert Maranger who said he was obliged to recommend Diab's removal from Canada but added the French case again the academic is so weak that a Canadian court would unlikely convict him.
The case has been controversial partly because the agreement with France is not reciprocal.
France does not extradite it own citizens.