Canadian academic convicted of carrying out terrorist bombing outside Paris Synagogue 43 years ago

A Canadian university professor has been convicted of carrying out a 1980 terrorist bombing outside a synagogue in Paris.

Hassan Diab, 69, a Lebanese-born sociologist of Palestinian-Arab heritage at Carleton University in Ottawa, has been given a life sentence for planting the motorcycle bomb outside the Rue Copernic Synagogue. Four people were killed and 46 were wounded.

The bombing took place on Friday evening on 3rd October 1980, near the beginning of Shabbat and during the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah.

The neo-Nazi Federation of National and European Action took responsibility, but investigators concluded that Arab terrorists were in fact behind the attack, and eventually sought the extradition of Prof. Diab, which was granted in 2011. He spent over three years in prison in France while the investigation continued, only for the charges to be dismissed in 2018, with Prof. Diab able to return to Canada. Appeals courts in France reversed the dismissal, however, paving the way for this trial.

Prof. Diab has always claimed that he was in Lebanon at the time of the bombing. His conviction in absentia is likely to be followed by a second extradition request.

Responding to the verdict, the Hassan Diab Support Committee, which includes the former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make it “absolutely clear” that no second extradition would be accepted.

It  was the first deadly attack against Jewish people in France since the end of WWII and became a template for future such attacks by Islamist terrorist groups.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism in France and throughout Europe.