OTTAWA, April 5 (UPI) -- Canada moved Thursday to extradite a professor to France, where he is wanted on terrorism charges dating back to 1980, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson ordered 57-year-old University of Ottawa Professor Hassan Diab extradited after three years of investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the newspaper said.
French officials named Diab a suspect in a terrorist bombing of a Paris synagogue in October 1980 that wounded several people inside and on the street, the Journal said.
Diab has consistently denied any role in the bombing since he was first questioned by the RCMP.
The bombing was the first terror attack in France since World War II, the report said.
His lawyer, Donald Bayne, told reporters he would fight the extradition order up to the Canadian Supreme Court.
The lawyer said France doesn't have enough evidence to prosecute Diab and called the extradition order "manifestly unreasonable."
