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Defiant Carlos the Jackal on trial in France

PARIS (AP) — A defiant and smiling Carlos the Jackal, one of the most dreaded terror masterminds of the Cold War, went on trial again on yesterday — this time over four deadly attacks in France nearly three decades ago.

The 62-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is 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, greying beard and wavy hair brushed back, Ramirez smiled as he entered and then identified himself to the court as “a professional revolutionary” — striking a combative pose from the outset.

With three gendarmes at his side, Ramirez variously raised a fist in defiance, weaved in anti-Zionist rhetoric into his diatribes and smiled back to someone in the tightly controlled audience in the chamber.

“He’s in a fighting mood as always,” Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Ramirez’s lawyer and amorous partner, told reporters outside the courtroom before the trial began.

 

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