Ottawa's Arab community believes a local academic accused of terrorism is the victim of anti-Arab attitudes in Canada, court heard Friday.
"We feel we are being targeted, and this is just one case of it," said Nour El-Kadri, a member of the Ottawa-based Canadian Coalition of Arab Professionals and Community Associations (CAPCA).
El-Kadri was one of several people who testified on behalf of Hassan Diab, a one-time lecturer in sociology at the University of Ottawa and, more recently, Carleton University. The French government has accused Diab of being a terrorist and wants him extradited so he can be tried in a 1980 bombing in Paris that killed four people and injured dozens. Acting on a French request, the RCMP arrested the 55-year-old in November, and he has been held in the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre since then.
Diab was in court this week, seeking to be released on bail while he awaits an extradition hearing.
He has promised to abide by any bail conditions, including an electronic bracelet and curfew.
On Friday, defence lawyer Donald Bayne elicited support for Diab's cause from several witnesses who testified to his good character and academic qualifications.
El-Kadri, a PhD student and a teacher at the University of Ottawa, told the court there is "very high support" for Diab's release among Arabs in Ottawa. Most think Diab has been "targeted," as was Maher Arar, the Ottawa man who was flown by American intelligence officials to Syria, where he was wrongly imprisoned and tortured,
"We feel this (Diab's case) is the continuation of the same thing," said El-Kadri, who has offered to put up a $70,000 bond as surety that Diab will abide by any bail conditions.
Attempts to extradite Diab were a "miscarriage of justice," he said.
Hussein Al-Saleh, a local mortgage broker and another member of CAPCA willing to post a $100,000 bond on Diab's behalf, endorsed that view.
Canadians of "Muslim and Arab origin have had a bad time in Canada," he said.
French authorities issued a warrant in November 2007 for Diab's arrest, following a lead from German intelligence saying he was involved in the October 1980 bombing outside the Copernic Street synagogue in Paris that killed three Frenchmen and a young Israeli woman. It was the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation of the Second World War.
Diab insists they made a mistake, and has denied links to extremist groups. He faces life in prison for murder, attempted murder and wilful destruction of property, if convicted in a French court.
The bail hearing continues Monday.