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Carlos the Jackal on trial for deadly French bombings
Notorious Venezuelan militant cell leader Carlos the Jackal went on trial on Monday in Paris accused of carrying out four deadly bombings in France that killed 11 people and wounded almost 150.
The 62-year-old has made no secret of his past as the leader of a gang that carried out attacks on behalf of Warsaw Pact intelligence agencies and far-left or pro-Palestinian causes, but denies the latest French charges.
“I’m a professional revolutionary,” he told judge Olivier Leurent, appearing cheerful and relaxed if a little more pot-bellied, grey and balding than in his heyday as an international conspirator responsible for hundreds of deaths. Appearing in jeans and a blue jacket, Carlos Ilich Ramirez Sanchez waved and gave the clenched fist salute to a motley collection of well-wishers struggling to find space alongside dozens of journalists.
He leaned on the glass screen around the dock, smiling and chatting with his guards, and appeared entirely unconcerned. Speaking before the hearing, French stand-up comic Dieudonne Mbala Mbala, an activist close to far-right circles who has been convicted of anti-Semitism, demanded “Commander Carlos” be allowed to return home to Venezuela.
Carlos’ lawyers kept up the atmosphere of spectacle, denouncing the “unfair trial” before a panel of anti-terrorism magistrates, without a jury.
Carlos was arrested in Sudan in 1994 and transferred to France, where he has since been held in various jails. In 1997 he was convicted of the 1975 murder of a civilian and two policemen, and jailed for life.
