		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="1">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>A Lebanese-Canadian academic has been convicted in absentia of terrorism charges and sentenced to life in prison over a bombing outside a Paris synagogue in 1980 that killed four and wounded 46.</p>
<p>The court in the French capital issued an arrest warrant for Hassan Diab, who lives in Ottawa, Canada, and denies wrongdoing.</p>
<p>His lawyers say he was in Lebanon at the time of the attack and is a victim of mistaken identity.</p>
<p>The trial marked the culmination of decades of investigation into one of France’s longest unsolved crimes.</p>
<p>French authorities accuse Diab of planting the bomb outside the synagogue where 320 worshipers had gathered to mark the end of a Jewish holiday on the evening of October 3 1980, including children celebrating their bar mitzvahs.</p>
<p>French investigators attributed the synagogue attack to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations but no one ever claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>The conviction was a surprise to many even in the court. Among the defence witnesses was a magistrate who investigated the case and testified that there was not enough evidence to convict Diab.</p>
<p>The head of France’s leading Jewish group, CRIF, welcomed the conviction, and urged Canada to arrest Diab.</p>
<p>The victims’ lawyers said the long-awaited trial will serve as a deterrent to other terrorist acts and antisemitic sentiments.</p>
<p>French authorities accused Diab of planting the bomb on a motorbike outside the synagogue on Rue Copernic.</p>
<p>Investigators initially suspected far-right extremists before shifting their focus to Palestinian militants.</p>
<p>Canada authorised Diab’s extradition to France in 2014 as part of the investigation, but after three years in pre-trial detention, anti-terrorism judges ordered him to be freed due to lack of evidence.</p>
<p>Then an appeals court ruled that he should stand trial on terrorism charges. Diab remained in Canada throughout the trial, which started earlier this month.</p>
<p>For those touched by the attack, the trial was a long-awaited opportunity to speak publicly about what happened.</p>
<p>Survivors described years of physical and mental trauma. Some said the sound of motorcycles haunted them after that night. Families of those killed mourned lost children or siblings.</p>
<p>Prosecutors argued that Diab has been lying to himself for 40 years and is caught up in his denial and escape from reality.</p>
<p>Diab’s lawyer William Bourdon had pleaded for an acquittal, saying that convicting someone would be “a judicial mistake”.</p>
<p>Amnesty International was among those which called for the court to drop what they called a flawed and baseless case, arguing that it “undermines effective justice for victims”.</p>
<p>Some lawyers for the 18 people and six groups that were party to the case acknowledged that it was hard to build a case so many years later, especially without the kind of DNA evidence or mobile phone data used in current investigations.</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68cd36e0e9430">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68cd36e0e9430',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
