Carlos the Jackal appears on new bomb charges
Source: Agencies |
November 8, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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A DEFIANT and smiling Carlos the Jackal, one of the most dreaded terror masterminds of the Cold War, went on trial again yesterday - this time over four deadly attacks in France nearly three decades ago.
The 62-year-old Venezuelan - real name Ilich Ramirez Sanchez - went before a special Paris court on terrorism-linked charges. He is already serving a life sentence handed down for a triple murder in 1975.
Ramirez was one of the most feared masterminds of terror during the Cold War. He is charged with instigating four attacks in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and injured more than 140 others.
He has denied any role in the attacks. A panel of anonymous magistrates will rule after the six-week trial.
Wearing a blue jacket, graying beard and wavy hair brushed back, Ramirez smiled as he entered the court and identified himself as "a professional revolutionary."
Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Ramirez's lawyer and partner, told reporters: "He is in a fighting mood as always." She said there was "no reason" for the trial nearly 30 years after the events, and accused French prosecutors of putting him on trial for "propaganda or some other interests rather than justice."
But Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for some civil parties to the case, countered that the trial was important to show that terrorists will always be pursued and to mark "the end of the culture of impunity" for them.
The trial centers on four bombings: two on French trains, another at the Paris office of an Arabic-language newspaper and another at a French cultural center in West Berlin.
Those bombings came at least seven years after what French investigators consider was Ramirez's first heyday - eight attacks over two years starting in December 1973.
Ramirez is serving a life sentence for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informer. He was also the chief suspect in the 1975 hostage-taking of OPEC oil ministers that left three people dead.
French prosecutors claim two attacks in 1982 were carried out to pressure the French government into freeing a girlfriend, whom he later married.
The 62-year-old Venezuelan - real name Ilich Ramirez Sanchez - went before a special Paris court on terrorism-linked charges. He is already serving a life sentence handed down for a triple murder in 1975.
Ramirez was one of the most feared masterminds of terror during the Cold War. He is charged with instigating four attacks in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and injured more than 140 others.
He has denied any role in the attacks. A panel of anonymous magistrates will rule after the six-week trial.
Wearing a blue jacket, graying beard and wavy hair brushed back, Ramirez smiled as he entered the court and identified himself as "a professional revolutionary."
Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Ramirez's lawyer and partner, told reporters: "He is in a fighting mood as always." She said there was "no reason" for the trial nearly 30 years after the events, and accused French prosecutors of putting him on trial for "propaganda or some other interests rather than justice."
But Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for some civil parties to the case, countered that the trial was important to show that terrorists will always be pursued and to mark "the end of the culture of impunity" for them.
The trial centers on four bombings: two on French trains, another at the Paris office of an Arabic-language newspaper and another at a French cultural center in West Berlin.
Those bombings came at least seven years after what French investigators consider was Ramirez's first heyday - eight attacks over two years starting in December 1973.
Ramirez is serving a life sentence for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informer. He was also the chief suspect in the 1975 hostage-taking of OPEC oil ministers that left three people dead.
French prosecutors claim two attacks in 1982 were carried out to pressure the French government into freeing a girlfriend, whom he later married.
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