It is not often given to see an examining magistrate come and cut to pieces the arguments of the accusation at the trial of the accused whom he had had to instruct. Jean-Marc Herbaut, assisted by his colleague Richard Foltzer, dismissed the case in 2018 in the case of the rue Copernicus attack, thus allowing Hassan Diab, the only indicted at the time, to find freedom and return home to Canada. Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal issued an order to the contrary, referring Mr. Diab to the specially composed Assize Court of Paris, where he has been tried by default since April 4 for this bomb attack which had caused four deaths on October 3, 1980.
So here is Mr. Herbaut summoned by the defense of Hassan Diab, who came to testify Thursday, April 13 afternoon. He says it in the preamble: “My presence here is a matter of legal incongruity. I am in a position to comment on my own prescription. » Investigating judge for thirty-three years, respected by his peers for his « rectitude »Mr. Herbaut, 59, is more accustomed to the silence of his office than to the outbursts of the courtrooms.
With method and clarity, he presented the progress of the dossier when he took it over on 1is September 2015, of his predecessor Marc Trévidic, then his approach. He decides to make it his ” priority “, despite the news “nightmarish” which will fall on the anti-terrorist pole between November 2015 and the end of 2017 because of the campaign of attacks hitting France.
“On this passport, I lose myself in conjectures”
When Judge Herbaut takes over the case, Hassan Diab, then in pre-trial detention in France, where he was extradited in 2014 by Canada, changes defender and strategy. He decides to speak. He will have four interrogations with Judge Herbaut. The latter comes out with the conviction that he is dealing with a man ” very clever “which does not elude any question. “I quickly understood that it was going to be complicated against him”, remembers the judge. The only subject on which Mr. Diab showed himself somewhat « vasouillard » : the loss of his passport.
It turns out that the copy of this passport, seized and then returned by the Italian authorities in 1981, is the only piece of evidence in this trial which is sorely lacking in material evidence. Graphological expertise? “I give absolutely no credit to these writing expertise”, loose Mr. Herbaut. The resemblance to the composite portrait? “It is the portrait of a man who resembles many men of that time. » Prosecution evidence is fragile and “contradictory”. The defense testimonies agree with those of Hassan Diab, in particular on the fact that he was taking university exams in Beirut in early October 1980, at the time of the attack in Paris.
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