OTTAWA - The common-law wife of accused terrorist Hassan Diab says the romantic bloom is off their relationship -- but she's still willing to vouch for his innocence and keep tabs on him if he's released on bail.
Rania Tfaily, testifying Monday at an Ontario Superior Court hearing, acknowledged she was "annoyed and upset" to discover last year that Diab was having an affair with another woman.,
But that doesn't change the fact that, in her view, he can't be guilty of a 1980 synagogue bombing that took four lives in Paris.
"I know his political views," Tfaily, an assistant professor of demographics at Carleton University, told Justice Robert Maranger. "I know he's disgusted by mass killing of innocent people."
Diab, a Lebanese-born Canadian citizen and part-time instructor in sociology at both Carleton and the University of Ottawa, is seeking release on bail while he awaits an extradition hearing later this year.
French authorities want to try him in Paris on charges of murder, attempted murder and destruction of property in the synagogue attack nearly three decades ago.
Tfaily has offered to be Diab's principal surety, the person responsible for monitoring him and seeing that he abides by any bail conditions.
"It's not out of love," she testified. "He's a nice man but I'm not in love with him. . . . After some time love wears off."
Nevertheless, said Tfaily, she couldn't live with herself if she let a man she believes to be innocent remain in jail out of jealousy.
"He's not charged with marital infidelity," she said. "This is a criminal case."
Crown prosecutors oppose Diab's release. They say there's a risk he could flee given the seriousness of the charges he faces in France.
But defence lawyer Donald Bayne questioned the strength of the French case, saying the evidence offered would never stand up to scrutiny in Canada.
"This is an extremely weak, criminal case," said Bayne, arguing that the eyewitness identifications, handwriting analysis and secret intelligence used to buttress the French charges are all suspect.
Diab has told the court he's willing to abide by whatever bail conditions are imposed, including the wearing of an electronic monitoring device to ensure he remains in the Ottawa area.
Crown attorney Suzanne Schriek raised questions about how Tfaily can act as an effective overseer of bail conditions, given the fact that Diab has deceived her in the past about his travels and his relationships with other women.
She painted him as a man who has engaged in a series of "marriages of convenience" over the years, with extensive contacts in several countries that make him a risk to flee Canada before the extradition can be concluded.
