On the 3rd of october 1980, a bomb settled on a motobike exploded at 6.37 pm (French hour) in front of the synagogue of Copernic Street in Paris (France).
It was friday, the day before Shabbat. The synagogue was packed with 320 people inside.
4 people have been killed by the explosion, 46 others were injured.
Fortunately, the criminal investigation showed that the bomb exploded sooner than it was planned. Otherwise, the number of victims would have been much higher.
Despite the fact that there never was a trial to this day, the investigation never stopped in France and several famous French judges led the case.
The investigators saw rapidly that the main member of the commando left some clues related to his stay in Paris, including the number of his passport and a written note.
The name of the suspect, identified as « Hassan Diab », appears 2128 times in 281 documents from the procedure.
On the 5th of November 2008, the French magistrate Marc TREVIDIC issued an arrest warrant against a Canadian citizen named Hassan Diab, a professor of sociology at the university of Ottawa.
On the 12th of December 2008, France addressed to Canada an official request to extradate Mr. Hassan Diab.
Despite a positive response from the Canadian authorities to this request, Mr. Hassan Diab used all the legal means he had to delay the procedure.
On the 2nd of October 2013, the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AfVT.org) set up a press conference inside the synagogue of Copernic Street in order to show the authorities and the public opinion that the victims were still claiming for their rights.
On the 15th of May 2014, after several months of debates, the Canadian Court of Appeal released its judgment : the extradition in France of Mr. Hassan Diab has been validated.
THE DECEASED VICTIMS
Mr. Jean-Michel BARBE, 41, killed while driving his car.
Mr. Philippe BOUISSOU, 22, killed while driving his motobike.
Mr. Hilario LOPES-FERNANDES, 40, the Portugese concierge of the « Victor Hugo » hotel, who passed away two days after the bombing.
Mrs. Aliza SHAGRIR, 42, a journalist from Israel, was killed while she was walking on the sidewalk.
Stéphane LACOMBE
