Hassan Diab (sociologist)

Hassan Naim Diab (Arabic: حسن نعیم دياب; born November 20, 1953) is a Lebanese-Canadian citizen. He was convicted in a controversial April 2023 trial in absentia at the Court of Assize in Paris of having planted the explosive in the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing.

In 2008, France officially requested his extradition for his alleged involvement in the 1980 synagogue bombing. Diab's appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal was denied, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case. On April 4, 2012, the Canadian Minister of Justice, Rob Nicholson, committed Diab to extradition to France. After a 6 year legal battle, on November 14, 2014, Hassan was extradited from Canada to France where he was held in pretrial detention at Fleury-Mérogis Prison for 3 years and two months without trial while the investigation continued.

On January 12, 2018, the charges against Diab were dismissed, after two highly experienced French anti-terrorism magistrates found that there was no evidence to justify trial. Diab had a strong alibi that he was present in Beirut, Lebanon, at the time of the attack, taking his University exams. Also Diab's fingerprints and palm prints do not match those of the suspect. Two days later, on January 14, 2018, he was unconditionally released and he returned to Canada. The French anti-terrorism Prosecutors appealed the decision, arguing the judges made major mistakes. In January 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal reversed the dismissal of charges and ordered that he stand trial. Hassan Diab refused to attend the trial and his lawyers attempted to stop it. On May 19, 2021, France's most important judicial court, the Court of Cassation ordered the trial to go ahead. On April 21, 2023, Diab was convicted of terrorism charges in absentia and sentenced to life in prison. The decision was reached unanimously. The court, composed of six French judges, issued an international arrest warrant.

Evidence presented against Diab in France included a sketch of the bomber that resembled him. A hotel registration form with block printing used a different name from Diab's. A fingerprint on the form was not Diab's. A passport in his name which he had lost was discovered in the bag of a terrorist. The passport had entry and exit stamps from Spain, where the terrorist team is believed to have fled after bombing the synagogue.

Diab has consistently contested the accusation, saying he was in Lebanon at the time of the terrorist attack, and that he had witnesses and evidence to prove it, as was confirmed by French investigative magistrates prior to his release in 2018. He compared his case to the Dreyfus Affair, creating controversy. The court assessed his alibi as having no credibility. Diab's supporters said there was no material element to prove that he, then a sociology student, was in France at the time. His lawyers found he had been sitting exams at a university in Lebanon and could not have used the passport, which he said he had lost.