SELF-PROCLAIMED “professional revolutionary” Carlos the Jackal returned to a Paris court yesterday to stand trial for a series of bombings in France in the 1980s.
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the Venezuelan-born guerrilla known as Carlos, gained notoriety after a hostage-taking of Opec oil ministers in the name of the Palestinian struggle in 1975. He has been serving a life sentence since his arrest by French special forces in Sudan in 1994.
“I am a revolutionary by profession,” Ramirez (62) declared to a special terrorism court in Paris, where he went on trial yesterday over four urban bombings in France that killed 11 people and wounded nearly 200 in the early 1980s.
“I am really in a combative mood,” Ramirez told French radio last month. “I’m not fearful by nature . . . My character is suited to this kind of combat.” Ramirez was one of a generation of leftist urban guerrillas who wrought havoc in the 1970s and 1980s with attacks on establishment figures and institutions. In West Germany the Baader-Meinhof group carried out assassinations and, in Italy, the Red Brigades waged a campaign of violence.
Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, his lawyer and also his wife, whom he married while in prison, called the trial “political” and said that the court had already made up its mind against her client.
Prosecutors say the attacks on a Paris street, on a train and in a train station were intended by Ramirez to send a signal to authorities who had earlier arrested two of his associates.
“We are hoping Carlos won’t be arrogant and will have at least a minimum of respect for the victims,” Philippe Rouault, a victim whose arm was nearly ripped off in an explosion, said before the proceedings.
“We know he likes to have his show, but we hope that he will be humble and respectful,” he said.
A verdict is due on December 16th.