Describing the death threats he's received in jail, Hassan Diab said he'd be willing to abide by any bail conditions -- including an electronic bracelet and a curfew -- if only he can leave detention as he awaits his extradition hearing to determine whether he must face murder charges in France.
"I am in the protective custody area, because of the trouble I've faced in the general population," said Diab, a small, slim man who taught sociology at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. "I felt I was threatened ... Death threats, like 'You're dead!' Those kinds of things."
But Crown prosecutor Claude Lefrançois, seeking to thwart Diab's bail request, painted a picture of him as a man likely to flee Canada to avoid extradition, a frequent traveller with ties to many countries and an unstable relationship with his common-law wife, Rania Tfaily.
Diab has been incarcerated at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre since Nov. 13 when he was arrested in connection with the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people.
French authorities want him extradited to stand trial for murder, attempted murder and the destruction of property for his alleged role in the bombing.
On the stand Thursday, he sketched an outline of his life, describing his birth in Lebanon in 1953, his university studies in sociology in Beirut, his move to the United States in 1987, and his string of teaching positions in the U.S., the Middle East and Canada over the past decade. He came to Ottawa in 2006, where he moved in with Tfaily and began teaching at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University in the fall of 2007.
But just a few months later, in January 2008, he became the target of RCMP surveillance. Preceding Diab on the witness stand, RCMP Cpl. Robert Tran testified that Diab sometimes employed "counter-surveillance techniques" when he was being followed by the RCMP. These techniques included U-turns, multiple lane changes, and switching clothing items.
"On one occasion he was seen wearing an Indiana Jones-type of hat. During the same day, he changed it to a baseball cap," Tran testified.
Diab said he believed he was being followed by "foreign elements," and never imagined that his pursuers could be Canadian police. He said he called 911 and the Ottawa Police Service many times, all to no avail.
"We were afraid. We didn't know what to do," he said, referring to himself and Tfaily. "I didn't for a moment think it was the police's work. I thought it was some illegal elements."
Diab intends to live with Tfaily if he is granted bail, and she would be his main surety -- the person responsible for making sure that he meets his bail conditions and attends his court dates.
Diab described his relationship with Tfaily as solid.
But under cross-examination by Lefrançois, Diab admitted that he had an affair with another woman, Faten Faour, in the summer and fall of 2008, and did not confess the affair to Tfaily until after he was arrested in November 2008. Diab also testified that he keeps in close touch with his first wife, Nawal Copty, who lives in California.
He agreed with the prosecutor that he has travelled widely and has lived in six countries in the past 12 years: Canada, the U.S., Kuwait, Lebanon, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.
However, he also testified that he does not currently hold a valid passport, and that he would be willing to agree not to apply for one as part of his bail conditions.
The defence will be calling character witnesses today, the third day of Diab's bail hearing.