The life of an unassuming sociology professor in Canada gets turned upside down when he is accused of carrying out a 1980 bomb attack on a synagogue in Paris. Hassan Diab says heʼs innocent — but French investigators are determined to prove otherwise.
What follows is a decades-long story about the pursuit of justice, wild reversals of fortune, and lives torn apart. On one side is a French court in dogged pursuit of justice for a devastating attack on Parisʼs Jewish community. On the other, an ordinary man who maintains his innocence.
In the first podcast investigation into this case, my colleague Dana Ballout and I travelled between Canada and France, interviewing dozens of people close to this story, trying to answer the question: Is Hassan Diab guilty, or is he a scapegoat?
I reported, produced and co-hosted this six-part series with Dana Ballout. Julie Shapiro was the editor, Noor Azrieh was the associate producer, Catherine Bennett provided research, production and translation support. Sound design was by Resonant Fields Audio, artwork was by Tony Wang, and Jesse Brown was the executive producer and publisher.