Episode 1: The Attack

Summary

The Copernic Affair | Canadaland Investigates: Episode 1 - The Attack

Release Date: January 22, 2025

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Introduction

The Copernic Affair delves into a harrowing incident that shook the Jewish community in Paris in 1980 and the subsequent decades-long quest for justice. Hosted by Canadaland reporters Dana Ballout and Alex Atack, this episode examines the life-altering accusation against Hassan Diab, a Canadian sociology professor, who stands accused of orchestrating the bombing of the Copernic Synagogue in Paris. The investigation raises profound questions about justice, scapegoating, and the intricacies of international law enforcement.

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The Tragic Night of October 3, 1980

Oren Chagrir's Story
At [03:00], Oren Chagrir introduces himself and shares the personal tragedy of losing his mother, Elisa Chagrir, in the Copernic Synagogue bombing. She was merely a tourist in Paris when the attack occurred.

Oren Chagrir [07:29]: "They woke me up very early in the morning of the day after. Yeah. And told me she was 42 when she was killed. She was beautiful, joyful, very opinionated..."

The Attack Unfolds
The bombing took place on a serene Friday evening, disrupting a Sabbath service at France's oldest Reformed synagogue. Initially a bustling community gathering, the atmosphere turned to chaos as a bomb detonated outside the synagogue's doors at approximately 6:30 PM, resulting in four fatalities, including Oren's mother.

Dana Balut [04:44]: "Pascal first thought that this was an earthquake, that it might be the end of the world..."

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Immediate Aftermath and Initial Investigation

First Responders on the Scene
Journalist Annette Levy Willard recounts her first-hand experience arriving at the scene immediately after the attack.

Annette Levy Willard [06:14]: "It was a war zone. People running, people crying, blood all over corpses. It was for me, for the first time in my life, that I was facing dead people."

Shifting Focus: From Neo-Nazis to a Middle Eastern Suspect
Initially, the investigation pointed towards La Fan F.A.N.E., a small Neo-Nazi group previously reported by Annette. However, inconsistencies and the sophisticated nature of the attack led investigators to pivot towards a Middle Eastern suspect, Alexander Panadriou.

Annette Levy Willard [19:11]: "I said right away, it cannot be these guys. I mean, accounts, okay, they can do some damage somewhere, but they cannot organize such an attack..."

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The Suspect’s Trail: Alexander Panadriou

Evidence Points Away from Neo-Nazis
Investigators discovered that the bomb was attached to a stolen motorcycle linked to Alexander Panadriou, a man with a forged Cypriot passport. Despite piecing together his identity through witness statements and surveillance, Panadriou evaded capture, and his forgery status led authorities to hit a dead end.

Dana Balut [26:13]: "This theory that had gripped the entire country, that the attack was an escalation from smaller neo Nazi activities... was probably wrong."

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Decades of Obscurity and a Renewed Investigation

The Case Goes Cold
For nearly three decades, the Copernic bombing remained unsolved, leaving victims and the Jewish community grappling with unanswered questions.

Resurgence of the Investigation
In 2007, Judge Marc Trevidic revitalized the investigation, determined to uncover the truth. His relentless pursuit eventually led French investigators to Hassan Diab, a respected sociology professor in Ottawa, Canada.

Judge Marc Trevidic [27:06]: "We never abandoned a case. We never stop."

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Accusation Against Hassan Diab

A Quiet Life Disrupted
Hassan Diab, leading a serene academic life, found himself thrust into the spotlight as the prime suspect. His arrest ignited controversy and disbelief among those who knew him as a family man and esteemed professor.

Dana Balut [09:29]: "What we found the whole time we've been working on this story is that it's felt like we're actually working on two different stories in parallel."

Contrasting Narratives: France vs. Canada
The French authorities maintain their stance on Diab's guilt, while the Canadian perspective champions his innocence, painting him as a scapegoat caught in the crossfire of international tensions.

Dana Balut [11:12]: "It's a legal battle that has reached the highest courts in both countries. There's such strong evidence of his innocence."

Dana Balut [27:37]: "Eventually, the news cycle moved on and the Copernic case slipped quietly onto the back burner."

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Impact and Ongoing Questions

Community and Personal Repercussions
For victims like Oren Chagrir, the accusation against Diab not only questions his innocence but also underscores the emotional and social toll on families seeking closure.

Oren Chagrir [28:52]: "Yeah, I mean, it was really astonishing in a way. We were also happy that they tracked down the guy who actually planted the bomb."

Moral Dilemma: Justice vs. Injustice
The episode deeply explores whether pursuing Diab's conviction, if unjust, constitutes an overarching injustice, highlighting the ethical complexities in international criminal investigations.

Dana Balut [29:11]: "The same day he was arrested, an FBI agent knocked at my door here in California."

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Conclusion

The Copernic Affair Episode 1 lays the foundation for an intricate exploration of a cold case intertwined with international relations, media narratives, and personal tragedies. As Dana Ballout and Alex Atack unravel the layers of this decades-old mystery, listeners are left contemplating the fine line between justice and injustice, and the human cost of unresolved investigations.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Oren Chagrir [07:29]: "They woke me up very early in the morning of the day after. Yeah. And told me she was 42 when she was killed..."

• Annette Levy Willard [06:14]: "It was a war zone. People running, people crying, blood all over corpses..."

• Annette Levy Willard [19:11]: "I said right away, it cannot be these guys..."

• Judge Marc Trevidic [27:06]: "We never abandoned a case. We never stop."

• Dana Balut [11:12]: "It's a legal battle that has reached the highest courts in both countries..."

• Oren Chagrir [28:52]: "Yeah, I mean, it was really astonishing in a way..."

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The Copernic Affair promises a comprehensive investigation into an unresolved act of terrorism, scrutinizing the evidence, motivations, and the profound implications of wrongfully accusing an innocent individual. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes as Canadaland continues to uncover the truth behind this enigmatic case.

Transcript

[Amanda Lifford]

Canadaland, funded by you.

[Giles Whittell]

Hello, it's Giles Whittell from Tortoise. Welcome to the news meeting.

[Jeff Turner]

I think the danger here is that we're not as relentless as we were the first time around. We have to keep that up.

[Dana Balut]

Just One newspaper found 30,000 thousand lies or falsehoods or misleading statements during his last term. Trump met the moment here. Because traditional media is in crisis, we should be talking about how our reporting is getting into the hands of people and how we're building trust with those audiences.

[Giles Whittell]

Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.

[Amanda Lifford]

Hello, welcome to We Signed an NDA, our podcast where we talk about the people who sign NDAs. Hollywood is the North Pole and the celebrities are Santa. This is a show all about the elves, so please don't sue us, Santa. My name is Amanda Lifford. If my voice sounds at all familiar, it's probably from the Vile Files podcast. And my name is Ann Maddox. You may have seen me on Vanderpump Rules. Getting fired on national television by Tom Sandoval. The Glasgow Willy Wonka experience. One of the worst jobs in history. Kirsty, you're on the right podcast. I was wearing snow pants lying under Stephen Colbert. Barry, welcome.

[Giles Whittell]

I've heard of Vanderpump Rules.

[Alex Atak]

I don't know what it is, so listen to.

[Amanda Lifford]

We signed an NDA. Wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Giles Whittell]

ACAST helps.

[Amanda Lifford]

Creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.

[Jeff Turner]

Acast.com In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's gonna get personal.

[Giles Whittell]

I don't know who sober Jeff is.

[Amanda Lifford]

I don't even know if I like that guy.

[Jeff Turner]

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Staying on top of Canadian news does not have to be boring. Canadaland is a podcast that brings you the news differently. Our reporters break original news stories that you won't hear anywhere else. And our hosts and guests have funny and smart conversations about what is happening in Canadian politics and media.

[Amanda Lifford]

We're living through an era of heightened anxiety and fear.

[Jeff Turner]

This prime minister is not worth the cost. Crime and corruption. I am not a KGB agent. Listen to Canadaland. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Giles Whittell]

If you could just introduce yourself, Oren, just tell me your name and who you are.

[Oren Chagrir]

So my Name is Oren Chagrir. I'm from Jerusalem. I was born here in Jerusalem, 63 years ago. I guess that I'm here to talk about the Copernic affair, the terror attack in which my mother was killed in 1980.

[Dana Balut]

October 3, 1980 Paris, France My mother.

[Oren Chagrir]

Was just a tourist in Paris.

[Dana Balut]

Her name was Elisa Chagrir. She was a film editor. Aliza was in Paris with Orin's brother. The two of them were on their way to meet a family friend when she stopped off at a grocery store on Copernic Street, a quiet street in an affluent neighborhood in the west of the city.

[Oren Chagrir]

Then my mother. When they arrived to the corner of Kopernick and Loristown, my mother told my brother that she will just go to the fruit store on Copernic street to bring some figs and that she will meet my brother in a few minutes. But this was the last time my brother saw her.

[Giles Whittell]

There's a well known synagogue on Kopenik Street. It's the oldest Reformed synagogue in France, built in 1907. And on that Friday evening, the start of Sabbath, worshippers were beginning to file in before the service was due to start. Pascal, who was 13 at the time, was amongst them. He told us it was a normal day. He was with his brother. Their parents, who would usually come too, were hosting a small party that evening. So they stayed.

[Dana Balut]

By the time everyone had arrived, there were more than 300 people gathered inside. There were prayers and songs, then a few bar and bat mitzvahs to celebrate. So things were running longer than usual.

[Giles Whittell]

Then at around 6:30pm, Pascal heard this sound. He felt the ground trembling. Shards of glass fell from the windows above.

[Dana Balut]

Pascal first thought that this was an earthquake, that it might be the end of the world. Parts of the ceiling crumbled. Pieces of the wall were blown off. Dust and debris everywhere. He remembers seeing a curtain of flames rising between the synagogue and the street. And outside there was chaos.

[Giles Whittell]

A bomb had been detonated right outside the synagogue's front doors. Journalists rushed to the scene. Annette Lavie Willard from the newspaper Liberation was one of them.

[Annette Levy Willard]

It was a war zone. People running, people crying, blood all over corpses. It was for me, for the first time in my life, that I was facing dead people.

[Dana Balut]

In the chaos. Afterward, the rabbi told a reporter that he saw at least two people dead. He'd later learn that there were more. The timing of the bomb was no doubt intentional. Around 6:30pm is when people should have been leaving the synagogue and heading home. Had things run on time a lot more People could have been hurt. Still, four people were killed by the blast.

[Giles Whittell]

Jean Barbe, a chauffeur waiting in his car.

[Dana Balut]

Philippe Buissou, a young student riding past on his motorbike, going to meet his fiance.

[Giles Whittell]

Hilario Lopez Fernandez, a hotel concierge, standing on the sidewalk.

[Dana Balut]

And Oren's mom, Elisa Chagrir.

[Oren Chagrir]

They woke me up very early in the morning of the day after. Yeah. And told me she was 42 when she was killed. She was beautiful, joyful, very opinionated. In some ways, she was the center of the family, especially, I think, her warmth and empathy, because as a child, she was the more dominant parent in the house, taking care of us. I missed this for many years.

[Giles Whittell]

Dozens more people were injured in the explosion. A teenager's face was completely disfigured. An elderly woman's legs were severed.

[Annette Levy Willard]

And I wondered for many years, why did these people choose to hit the Copernic Synagogue? And I was really wondering why.

[Dana Balut]

Why?

[Giles Whittell]

For France's Jewish community, there was a time before the Copernic attack and a time after. Antisemitism hadn't gone away after World War II, but outright direct violence targeted at Jews seemed like a thing of the past. What happened on Copenik street shattered that. In the aftermath, the city was in a state of shock, and police were under immense pressure to find out who orchestrated this attack. But shock soon transformed into paralysis. For decades, it seemed like the perpetrator had gotten away with the bombing.

[Dana Balut]

Pascal told us it was like living with an invisible enemy. Someone had tried to kill them, but that someone was a ghost. I'm Dana Balut. I'm Alex Atak from Canadaland. This is the Copernic Affair.

[Giles Whittell]

Dana and I are journalists. We first met in Lebanon, where we both used to live, and we've worked together for years since. Which is partly why this story caught our eye in the first place. Because years later, when French investigators finally did identify their prime suspect, it turned out he was a Lebanese Canadian man, a sociology professor called Hassan Diab, living a quiet life in Ottawa, Canada.

[Amanda Lifford]

To have a terrorist in our midst in quiet old Ottawa, I was actually disgusted.

[Dana Balut]

And the more we looked into it, the more we realized this story wasn't as straightforward as we thought. So we started reporting and ended up speaking to dozens of people in Canada and in France, some of whom had never talked about this in public before. My brother asked me, do you know Professor Hassan Diya? And I said, I know him very well. What's wrong? And he said, this morning, he was arrested.

[Giles Whittell]

What we found the Whole time we've been working on this story is that it's felt like we're actually working on two different stories in parallel.

[Dana Balut]

How could anything like this happen to somebody like him? You're getting a bit emotional. I am, I am, yeah.

[Giles Whittell]

Everybody agrees on the basic facts of what happened that night in Paris back in 1980, and that it was an awful tragedy. It was a tremendous shock in Paris because it was the first time since.

[Dana Balut]

Maybe 30 years that a bomb attack.

[Giles Whittell]

Was perpetrated in the street of Paris. But what they don't agree on is who was responsible for the bombing. There's the French story that Hassan Diab is the person behind this attack and now he's just living freely in Ottawa.

[Annette Levy Willard]

When you see that the guy is lying, you know that he's guilty.

[Giles Whittell]

And then there's the story we've been told in Canada that he's an innocent man, a father, a husband, a well liked professor and a great friend.

[Amanda Lifford]

He's a great cook, he's very sociable.

[Giles Whittell]

He's a wonderful person.

[Dana Balut]

It's a legal battle that has reached the highest courts in both countries. There's such strong evidence of his innocence.

[Giles Whittell]

That just has consistently been ignored by, you know, both the French and Canadian governments. World leaders have weighed in, assigned.

[Jeff Turner]

We have to recognize first of all.

[Giles Whittell]

That what happened to him never should have happened. Investigators have spent decades looking for a culprit.

[Amanda Lifford]

I believe he was being targeted because the French needed a scapegoat.

[Giles Whittell]

But despite all this, 45 years later, the story of the Copernic synagogue bombing is still unfolding.

[Jeff Turner]

It's a movie you couldn't even imagine.

[Dana Balut]

Writing the script of because it's so.

[Giles Whittell]

Hard to believe, but it's reality.

[Dana Balut]

So we got in touch with the man convicted of carrying out this attack to see if he would talk to us. So we are almost at Hassan's house. That's later. For now, we're starting where the story began in Paris.

[Giles Whittell]

Foreign.

[Alex Atak]

Guessing that most of the Canadians listening to this right now already listen to Canada Land, the Americans. I'm not so sure. For over 10 years, Canadaland has been publishing weekly episodes that look critically at the media, break news stories and bring listeners like you perspectives from across Canada that you won't find anywhere else. Angel, since you started working on the show, have you been listening? Have you been catching up on all things across the medicine line?

[Amanda Lifford]

People are always telling me that you Canadians are nice, polite, boring folks. But I've been listening to some news stories and holy cow, the stereotypes are wrong. You Guys are wild. I've heard stories about medical cover ups, election interference, right wing trolls, racism, messed up policing, and something called a pokeroo. Anyway, you guys are like the US but with less guns and a younger, better looking president or leader, whatever you call him. I've learned a lot.

[Alex Atak]

Yep, Canadians are just as awful and outrageous and messed up as Americans are. They just hide it better.

[Amanda Lifford]

I'm learning that.

[Alex Atak]

Robert, you can listen to and follow Canadaland anywhere you get your podcasts.

[Giles Whittell]

Okay, so I'm just walking along Rue Copenhagenic now, Copenhagen Street. Early in our reporting, I went to Paris. And on the way to my first interview, I took a detour to see the place where this story all started. Lots of people wearing umbrellas, trying to stay out of the rain, standing next to a lighting store. I think the store was destroyed in the attack, so I must be close to the synagogue. Oh yeah, here it is. It's this stone art deco building with a big blue door surrounded by security gates and CCTV cameras. You might not even notice it's a synagogue if you were just walking past. Past. There's a plaque out front in memory of all the victims of the attack. 3rd of October 1980. Later that afternoon, I met up with Annette Levy Willard at her apartment. She's the journalist who arrived on the scene of the attack just after it happened.

[Annette Levy Willard]

Can do anything afterwards, I can ask you what would be the right word. Okay.

[Giles Whittell]

I was there to ask her about the night of October 3, 1980. But when we sat down, there was another story that she wanted to share first, a backstory, something that happened a few weeks before the attack on Kopenik Street.

[Annette Levy Willard]

It's the beginning of September.

[Giles Whittell]

At the time, she was still a young reporter at the newspaper. And there was this one night when somebody phoned up the office with a tip about a secretive French neo Nazi group called fan.

[Annette Levy Willard]

They were called La Fan F A N E. Small Neo Nazi group, very small, I know 50 people, but extreme right wing.

[Giles Whittell]

The person on the phone said, this group is holding a clandestine meeting tonight and here's the address. Annette's editor asked her to go to see if she could get them to talk and maybe there'd be a story there.

[Annette Levy Willard]

And as a journalist, I said, of course.

[Giles Whittell]

So that night she showed up at the address, this shabby apartment north of the river in Paris.

[Annette Levy Willard]

So I went up the stairs, opened the door, and I found myself with almost 30 guys in a small room. So these people were as surprised as I was because they were not expecting a journalist to show up.

[Giles Whittell]

At their meeting, she introduced herself, said that she was a journalist and she wanted to write about them. To her surprise, they let her in.

[Annette Levy Willard]

And so I got my notebook, I started taking notes, you know, very professional.

[Giles Whittell]

She expected these men might be a little more measured in their words with an outsider being in the room. Instead, she found the opposite. They were comfortable around her for two hours.

[Annette Levy Willard]

They talked about against the Jews. You know, I mean, this was real Nazism in 1980 in Paris, in case.

[Giles Whittell]

You didn't catch that, she said they talked about gassing Jews. It was a horrifying, batshit situation to find herself in. Before long, one of the men asked Annette for her full name.

[Annette Levy Willard]

And she told him, my name is Annette Levy.

[Giles Whittell]

Livy, a Jewish name. She felt the atmosphere in the room change.

[Annette Levy Willard]

I was absolutely scared. I mean, I was really, really scared. I was telling myself, how do I get out of that?

[Giles Whittell]

The way to get out, she decided, was to try and flatter the leader of the group, this guy called Mark Frederickson.

[Annette Levy Willard]

And so I said, okay, well, now I have to go, but, you know, I would like to interview you some more. So I got out, I went down the stairs, I run, running, running, running, running. I went to a phone booth and I called my boss crying. I couldn't stop crying. And you know what he said? He said, go home and write now, now. Which I didn't because I was so shocked. So I want to have a drink.

[Giles Whittell]

Annette did get that drink, and then she wrote the story. The front page headline in Liberation the next day was two Hours of Hatred in France. And she told us it caused the stir because your average person just didn't know that these kinds of neo Nazi groups existed in France. But that soon changed. A few weeks after Annette's piece came out, there was a string of attacks on Jewish institutions across the city. On September 27, gunmen attacked a Jewish school, a nursery, a synagogue, and a war memorial with machine guns. And all in one day. Two days later, another attack on a different synagogue. In phone calls to French news agencies, all of these attacks were claimed by various far right groups. Nobody was hurt in any of them. But it felt pretty clear to anybody paying attention that a pattern was starting to emerge.

[Dana Balut]

The reason why Annette wanted to tell us all of this is because a couple hours after the Copernic attack, a phone rang at the Agence Front press offices in Paris. A staffer picked up and heard a man's voice on the other end of the line. He said he was a member of Fun and that they were responsible for The Copernic attack. When AFP published this, Annette recognized the name FAN immediately. This was the same group she'd written about just weeks before, the Neo Nazis who held a secret meeting in that shabby apartment in Paris. She didn't buy their claim, so, and.

[Annette Levy Willard]

I said right away, it cannot be these guys. I mean, accounts, okay, they can do some damage somewhere, but they cannot organize such an attack, which is very sophisticated, as you know.

[Dana Balut]

Annette thought this attack was complex, well planned. But those guys she met weeks earlier, they did not seem capable of pulling off something like this.

[Giles Whittell]

Whatever Annette thought, it didn't matter. Because of that phone call to afp, the story had taken root. This attack was the work of the far right. Newspapers published it. Politicians made statements condemning Neo Nazism in France. They promised retribution. And over the next few weeks, police arrested 83 members of FAN and people who sympathised with them throughout France.

[Annette Levy Willard]

And right away, huge march against the extreme right wing, against fascism. Huge demonstration.

[Giles Whittell]

Tens of thousands of people poured out into the streets of Paris in solidarity. There were offices and factories in high schools that let people out early so their employees and students could go to the protests. For a few days, it felt like the whole country had come out to stand alongside the Jewish, Jewish community. And as protesters marched, the police started work, trying to figure out who was behind the attack. Can you just help introduce yourself? Tell me your name and who you are.

[Annette Levy Willard]

My name is Jacques Ponass.

[Giles Whittell]

In 1980, I was a junior superintendent in the Brigade Criminal, which is the homicide division in the Paris police.

[Dana Balut]

Jacques was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the attack. He saw the destruction the bomb had left behind. The burnt out cars, the bodies covered by sheets. And amongst the chaos that night, his job was to start looking for clues. One of his first discoveries came a few days later. The police had offered compensation for any vehicles that were destroyed in the bombing. But no one stepped forward to claim a motorcycle that was parked right in front of the synagogue. Jacques spoke to us in French while our colleague Catherine translated.

[Jacques Ponass]

And the first thing that seemed obvious to them was that the bomb was placed underneath a motorbike that was almost destroyed, but not entirely.

[Dana Balut]

Given where the motorcycle was lying on the street and the way it was ripped apart, investigators deduced that the bomb must have been attached to it. The explosive was 10 kg of a material called PETN. Despite how wrecked this motorcycle was, the police also managed to find a serial number on the bike. From the serial number, they were able to track down the dealership where the motorcycle was purchased, Jacques and his team visited the store.

[Jacques Ponass]

The people that they spoke to said that the motorbike had been sold secondhand in the shop.

[Dana Balut]

The shop workers remembered the guy who bought it.

[Jacques Ponass]

They said that he was a guy who spoke good French, but the way that they described him, he was kind of Middle Eastern.

[Dana Balut]

They remembered him well enough to describe what he looked like to the police.

[Jacques Ponass]

The first thing that was interesting was that he paid for it in cash, in dollars. In particular, the employees asked him for ID because of the fact that he was paying in a different currency. It was a bit strange.

[Dana Balut]

The man paid $1000 for the motorcycle in cash, using $10 hundred bills. And he gave the address of the place he was staying at, Hotel Celtic, about a 15 minute walk from Copernic Street. He also handed over his passport for them to see. It was a Cypriot passport under the name Alexander Canedryou. The employees of the store also noted that he was in a rush, said he'd come back in a couple weeks to finish the vehicle registration. But he never returned.

[Giles Whittell]

After Jacques and his colleagues spoke to the people in the motorbike shop, they had a police sketch drawn up. It's this guy with dark eyes, dark hair, a mustache. And then when they started digging further into this new name, Alexandre Panadriou, they found another leadrue.

[Jacques Ponass]

They then found out a few days later that Alexandre Panadriou had been arrested for stealing in a shop in Montparnasse.

[Giles Whittell]

Montparnasse, a neighborhood in Paris.

[Jacques Ponass]

Essentially, he was stopped by the security guard, they had a scuffle, the police were called, his passport details were taken. But then he apologized.

[Giles Whittell]

He tried to explain that he'd stolen the cutters because he didn't have any francs and it was just a minor offence. So they basically let him go with a slap on the wrist.

[Jacques Ponass]

But in that process, obviously he'd been seen by several police officers and all of their descriptions of him corroborated, all matched up with the identity kit that had already been gathered from the employees at the motorbike shop.

[Giles Whittell]

So now they had a rough idea of what the suspected attacker looked like. And over the next few weeks, the investigators visited the Hotel Celtic, where this Alexander Panadriou had stayed. The staff didn't remember too much, but there was another person at the hotel who did. She was a sex worker who used to pick up clients in the hotel's bar. And she thought that maybe this guy had been one of her clients. The night before the attack, she described him as in his 30s. Maybe Arab or maybe Greek. She couldn't quite tell where his accent was from. He had messy black hair, brown eyes, short moustache, no glasses, but a vacant look in his eyes that made her think maybe he needed them.

[Jacques Ponass]

She added the detail that he was circumcised and that he paid in dollars. And again, that seems just unthinkable that a terrorist would think of in the night before committing a terrorist attack, having sex and feeling very relaxed about it.

[Giles Whittell]

Again, he paid in dollars. And there was one more clue they found at the hotel. A form that the suspect had filled out in his own handwriting when he checked in. He'd written just five. Alexander Panadryu, Larnaca, Cyprus technician.

[Dana Balut]

The police's investigation into the far right had hit a wall. All 83 far right members that were arrested after the Copernic attack had solid alibis and were later released. And when Jack and his team put together the other clues they had, the witness statements and the way the attack was carried out, they realized something. This theory that had gripped the entire country, that the attack was an escalation from smaller neo Nazi activities in the months prior, was probably wrong. Maybe Annette Levy Willard was right in thinking that far right groups like Fun were not organized enough to pull off this kind of attack.

[Jacques Ponass]

That was when the direction of the investigation started turning away from the far right and towards the Middle East.

[Giles Whittell]

Now that investigators had identified this so called Middle east theory, it felt like they had a solid direction to head in. So they pivoted. Across France, the police launched a manhunt to try and find this guy, Alexander Panadriou. But a few days later, Cypriot authorities came back to them with an update. The passport was a forgery. With this news, what had been the most solid lead for French authorities evaporated and the perpetrator of the Kopenik bombing remained at large.

[Dana Balut]

Eventually, the news cycle moved on and the Kopernik case slipped quietly onto the back burner. This feeling that Pascal and other survivors felt that they'd been attacked by an invisible enemy, it stayed with them for decades.

[Giles Whittell]

They felt forgotten by authorities until 27 years later in 2007, when a new investigator entered the picture. He was young, ambitious and determined to bring the case back from the edge of oblivion. My name is Trevidic. T R E V I D I C Marc. I am a French judge. We never abandoned a case. We never stop. It shows the importance of the fight against terrorism. You can have doors open. Many years after the attack, Mark Trevdick pried open doors that had been shut for decades, and the investigation into the Copernic bombing resumed in full force.

[Dana Balut]

Coming up on the Copernic Affair.

[Oren Chagrir]

Yeah, I mean, it was really astonishing in a way. We were also happy that they tracked down the guy who actually planted the bomb.

[Amanda Lifford]

I believe that I put a man's life not just necessarily at risk sitting in a jail cell, but turned his life around in ways that are unimaginable.

[Annette Levy Willard]

The same day he was arrested, an FBI agent knocked at my door here in California.

[Dana Balut]

So can you introduce yourself?

[Giles Whittell]

Oh, Hassan Diab. It was a surrealistic story, put it this way. The Copernic Affair is a production of Canadaland in partnership with House of Many Windows. The series is written and produced by me, Alex Atak and Dana Balut. Our editor is Julie Shapiro. Additional production by Nour Azriyeh Additional research, production and translation support by Kathryn Bennett Sound design and mixing by Resonant Fields Audio Original music by the Tiebreakers. Our artwork is by Tony Wong. Our executive producers are Jesse Brown and Julie Shapiro, and Jesse Brown is Candaland's publisher and editor. If you can't wait to find out what happens next, become a [e-mail] join to listen to every episode of the Copenik Affair early and ad free right now. You'll also be helping vital independent journalism along the way. You can also listen early and ad free by subscribing to the Canadaland beyond channel on Apple podcasts or on Amazon music included with Prime. Thank you for listening. If you want to help, the best thing you can do is to spread the word, let people know about the show, share it on social and encourage people to support work like ours.

[Jeff Turner]

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner and I'm back with season three three of On Drugs. And this time it's gonna get personal.

[Giles Whittell]

I don't know who sober Jeff is.

[Amanda Lifford]

I don't even know if I like that guy.

[Jeff Turner]

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Giles Whittell]

Hello, it's Giles Whittell from Tortoise. Welcome to the news meeting.

[Jeff Turner]

I think the danger here is that we're not as relentless as we were the first time around. We have to keep that up.

[Dana Balut]

Just one newspaper found 30,000 thousand lies or falsehoods or misleading statements during his last term. Trump met the moment here. Because traditional media is in crisis, we should be talking about how our reporting is getting into the hands of people and how we're building trust with those.

[Giles Whittell]

Audience ACAST Powers the World's Best Podcasts Here's a show that we recommend.

[Jonathan Fields]

It's the question that's on everyone's mind. How do you live a good life? How much do work, health, relationships matter? What about happiness meaning money and love? What if you're alone or anxious, ill or in pain? These are the questions we explore weekly on the top ranked Good Life Project podcast hosted by me, award winning author, four time industry founder and perpetual seeker Jonathan Fields. Every week I sit down with world renowned experts, iconic writers and researchers and while everyone from Olympic gold medalists to world shaking activists, a list celebs, musicians and more. All with the single goal to help understand what it truly takes to live a good life and to feel a little less alone along the way. Listen to the Good Life Project podcast wherever you get your podcast.

[Giles Whittell]

ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast. Com.