OTTAWA - Canada's justice minister has granted federal prosecutors the authority to proceed with an extradition hearing that could send Ottawa university professor Hassan Naim Diab to France to stand trial in connection with a deadly terrorist bombing nearly three decades ago.
Assistant Crown attorney Claude LeFrançois presented the document signed by Attorney General Rob Nicholson to Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny during a hearing to set a date for a pre-trial conference.
The move followed a formal written request from authorities in France seeking the extradition of the 55-year-old part-time professor at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.
Mr. Diab, who wore a white dress shirt, black pants and a black jacket to court, was arrested in November at the request of French authorities, who want him tried for the October 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four and injured scores of others.
The French say the Lebanese-born Mr. Diab was a member of a radical socialist Palestinian organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), when he was a student in Lebanon.
Prior to the filing of the document, Mr. Diab's lawyer, Donald Bayne, told Judge Ratushny that the defence only received the record of the case from federal prosecutors Friday morning.
Mr. Bayne said federal authorities have agreed to translate the documents, that translation likely won't be completed until the end of February.
Mr. Bayne said the defence would like four weeks to review the translated documents, and that they wouldn't likely be ready for a pretrial on matters related to the extradition until the end of March. He said it was "extremely important" to the defence and Mr. Diab that the translated documents be an official, certified translation — something that federal prosecutors have so far declined to supply.
Mr. Diab's first language is Arabic, Mr. Bayne said, and his second language English. Mr. Bayne added that neither he, or his co-counsel Rod Sellar, speak French.
Mr. Bayne said the defence is also seeking to have the search warrants used to search Mr. Diab's apartment in Hull translated from French to English. However, federal prosecutors argued they shouldn't have to translate those documents — which originated in Canada — because court proceedings here are bilingual.
Mr. Diab's lawyers are scheduled to appear in Gatineau court on Jan. 29 to argue that the warrant the RCMP used to search his temporary Hull sector apartment was flawed and that items police seized should not be given to prosecutors in France for use at Mr. Diab's anticipated trial.
Mr. Diab's lawyers and federal prosecutors are scheduled to meet privately with Judge Ratushny on Feb. 19 for a pre-trial conference to discuss the translation issues.