(Image Source: The Telegraph)
BY DANNY MATTESON
ANCHOR LAUREN GORES
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The man known as “Carlos the Jackal” is back in the court room today -- facing charges for crimes he allegedly committed in the early 1980s. Euronews explains.
“Convicted murderer ‘Carlos the Jackal’ faces a new trial in France, accused of a series of terrorist acts nearly 30 years ago. The 62-year-old Venezuelan was arrested and imprisoned in 1994 when he was captured by French secret service agents.”
So what is this assassin, formally known as Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, standing trial for this time? According to the Telegraph -- the charges are based on a string of bombings in France that killed 11 people and wounded nearly 200.
“The trial centres on four bombings: Two against French trains, another at a Paris office of an Arabic-language newspaper and yet another at a French cultural centre in then-West Berlin.”
But while some argue that putting Sanchez back on trial is pointless-- especially considering he’s already serving a life sentence for the 1975 murders of two French police officers and a Lebanese informant.
Sanchez’s biographer, John Follain, disagrees, telling the BBC-- the French authorities have an obligation to act.
“The French caught him in Sudan, brought him back, and they do want to bring him to account for these crimes in which he is alleged to have killed 11 people and wounded another hundred. I think the French state feels it owes it to the victims, to the relatives of the victims to see that they see justice even if it’s late.”
Regardless of the court’s motivations for the trial-- Sanchez’s wife-- who is also his lawyer-- believes there’s no way her client will get a fair shake. Quoted in the New York Times, she said...
“Everything is already sewn up. He cannot escape the ‘terrorist’ label. There is no presumption of innocence.”
At his trial today Sanchez reportedly raised his fist and defiantly declared “I am a professional revolutionary”. He earned his nickname after police found a copy of the novel Day of the Jackal in one of his hideouts.
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