Bail hearing for Hassan Diab set for today in Toronto court:
Over one thousand sign court petition
calling for renewal of Diab’s bail
TORONTO, 9 June 2010 – Dr.
Hassan Diab will appear before the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto today as
his Toronto lawyer, Marlys Edward, seeks to renew his bail. Dr. Diab's bail was
automatically revoked on Monday when an Ottawa judge signed an order committing
him for extradition to France.
Dr. Diab
waved to applauding supporters who packed an Ottawa courtroom before being taken
to the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre to await today's decision.
Dr. Diab’s supporters have
strong grounds to be hopeful that Hassan Diab will be able to return home on
bail while he appeals Monday’s decision. Over a dozen sureties are prepared to
post a bond of nearly one-half million dollars on behalf of Dr. Diab, in a clear
show of the impressive community support for Dr. Diab that the extradition judge
acknowledged in Monday's decision.
In addition, Dr. Diab’s lawyer
will submit petitions - signed by more than one thousand people, including
numerous family members and long-time friends and colleagues - in support of
renewing Hassan Diab’s bail. The petition reads, in part, “As concerned members
of the community and Canadian and international public, we strongly support Dr.
Diab and the presumption of innocence in his case. We believe Dr. Diab faces
injustices in his case, including the reliance of the French government on
unsubstantiated and bald assertions arising from unknown intelligence services,
and handwriting analysis that defence experts found to be based on seriously
flawed methodology that does not adhere to internationally recognized
standards.” Read full petitions:
www.diabpetition.org and
www.personal.diabpetition.org.
The former sociology professor
also has an impeccable track record. He scrupulously abided by the
harsh conditions of his previous bail, granted on 1 April 2009, for more than
two years. These bail conditions included having to pay over $2,000 per month
for a GPS tracking anklet that Dr. Diab was required to wear at all
times.
In his ruling on Monday, Justice
Maranger made clear that he could not have committed Hassan for extradition
without the French handwriting analysis report. This is the same handwriting
report that that the judge found to be “very problematic”, “very confusing”, and
with “suspect conclusions”, and that he described as “susceptible to criticism
and impeachment”. French investigators previously withdrew the evidence of two
of its handwriting experts after admitting they had mistakenly matched someone
else’s (i.e. not Dr. Diab's) handwriting.
The case reveals the very unfair
state of extradition law in Canada. Although clearly disturbed by the weakness
of the evidence, the judge felt trapped by the limited role granted to him by
the Extradition Act and powerless to stop the extradition. The low standards of
extradition law have led Gary Botting, Canada's leading extradition
authority, to describe it as 'the least fair process in Canadian law'.
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MEDIA RELEASE
Statement by Hassan Diab:
