Canada to extradite accused Paris bomber to France
The 1980 bombing was the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since World War II.
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada s top court refused Thursday to hear a university professor s final plea to halt his extradition to France, effectively ensuring he will face trial for the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue.
The decision brings to an end 60-year-old Hassan Diab s six-year legal fight to avoid what he said would be an unfair prosecution in France for a crime he insists he did not commit.
The Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in a one-line statement, saying his appeal was "dismissed without costs."
Diab, who was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon pending the announcement, could now be flown to France at any time.
The 1980 bombing was the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II. It left four dead and 40 wounded.
Canada s justice minister signed an order in April 2012 to send Diab to France after a Canadian court the previous year approved his extradition despite its concerns that the French case was "weak."
Diab said last May he has "absolutely no connection whatsoever to the terrible 1980 attack."
In proceedings, Diab s lawyers have mainly sought to discredit what they ve called "fatally flawed" handwriting analysis of a Paris hotel slip in evidence.
France says the slip was signed under a false identity -- "Alexander Panadriyu" -- which was also used to purchase a motorcycle used in the bombing.
