The trial of the attack on the rue Copernicus synagogue in Paris, which killed four people and injured dozens on October 3, 1980, began this morning, 43 years after the events and in the absence of a single defendant.

Hassan Diab, a 69-year-old Lebanese-Canadian who initially maintained his innocence, failed to appear at the start of the hearing, as he had already told the court during previous questioning.

Consequently, the Special Criminal Court in Paris ruled that the defendant, who was “unjustifiably absent”, should be tried in absentia, which was what civil defense lawyers had expected.

This university student left for Canada in January 2018 after it was initially decided not to prosecute him in the context of this case.

The court could theoretically decide to issue a new warrant for the arrest of Hassan Diab, but in this case, de facto, he would have to postpone the hearing.

“This trial must take place,” one of the lawyers in the civil suit, Benjamin Sabre, said, while at the same time condemning the “cowardice” of the accused, his “distrust” and “the great shame that he brought” to the court. criminal court.

Hassan Diab’s decision is “humanly understandable, humanly respectable” and is in no way “a sign of any cowardice,” his lawyer, William Bourdon, replied.

As for the civil lawsuit, after four decades of waiting and judicial cancellations, “this is the end of a very big Calvary,” Bernard Kahn, the lawyer for some of the victims, stressed before the start of the hearing.

On October 3, 1980, at around 6:35 pm, a motorcycle bomb exploded near a synagogue on rue Copernicus in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, killing four people – a passing student on a motorcycle, a personal driver, an Israeli journalist and a security guard of an apartment building, more 46 people were injured.

For the first time since World War II, France’s Jewish community has been the target of a bloody attack.

The attack, for which no responsibility has been taken, was attributed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Special Operations (PFLP-SO), a splinter faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

According to information collected in 1999, it was Hassan Diab who made the explosive device and loaded the motorcycle with ten kilograms of pentaerythritol (PETN), which exploded in front of the place of worship.

In addition to this information, the prosecution highlights the resemblance of the former student from Beirut to portraits of the suspect that were taken at the time based on the testimony of a couple who claimed to have belonged to Palestinian organizations early in his career. 1980s, as well as comparisons of Hassan Diab’s handwriting with the handwriting on a hotel card filled in by the person who bought the motorcycle.

The central point of the accusation remains the seizure in Rome in 1981 of a passport in the name of Hassan Diab with entry and exit stamps from Spain, the country from which the attack group allegedly left, on dates coinciding with the attack.

“He was in Lebanon during the events,” he took exams at the University of Beirut, “we prove it,” lawyer William Bourdon emphasized before the court. The defense recalled that former students and ex-wife of Hassan Diab confirmed his testimony.

“We hear from the prosecution that there was a demand at all costs to find the culprit, which was fueled by the judiciary, which unfairly allowed them to think that he was the only “guilty” that we could offer them,” Bourdon said.

Hassan Diab, a former professor of sociology, is on trial for murder, attempted murder, grievous bodily harm in connection with a terrorist operation and faces life in prison.

The verdict is expected April 21st.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters, AFP.