The Court will pronounce its decision this Wednesday on whether or not to hold a trial
Almost 41 years after the attack which left four dead and 46 injured, the highest judicial court must rule on the referral to the assizes of the main accused. The Court of Cassation will render its decision on Wednesday May 19 on the appeal of Hassan Diab, the only suspect found by the French justice for the attack of the Copernic synagogue on October 3, 1980, which contests its reference to the assizes. In a judgment of January 27, the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal had overturned, to the great relief of the victims, the dismissal granted in 2018 to Hassan Diab. This 67-year-old Lebanese-Canadian academic, who has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, is suspected of having posed the bomb in front of a synagogue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the explosion of which left four dead and 46 injured. Whatever the decision of the Court of Cassation, uncertainty would reign over the presence during a possible trial of the accused, returned to Canada after being dismissed in 2018. In this case where contradictory indices have been bitterly debated for more than ten years, a new twist is possible: during a hearing on May 12, the general counsel recommended the cassation of the stop. She followed Me Paul Mathonnet, the lawyer on the teacher’s council, who had pointed the finger “contradictions” which would be present in the judgment as to the dates of supposed stay of Hassan Diab in Europe. He also criticized the court’s lack of response to one of the main arguments of the defense, that of the supposed falsity of visas affixed to a passport, considered as a decisive dependent element. One of the lawyers of the civil parties, Me Emmanuel Piwnica, had rejected this “discussion of the relevance of charges which weigh on the dismissed person ”, which is not in the attributions of the Court of Cassation which is the judge of law and not of fact. “I ask you not to deprive the victims of the trial to which they are entitled. It is also the interest of Hassan Diab to find himself before an assize court ”if he considers himself in a position to be able to demonstrate his innocence, he argued. If the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation followed in the opinion of the Advocate General, it could request a review on the merits, which could entail again several months of proceedings.
By Le Figaro with AFP