Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, once one of the world's most wanted criminals, has been convicted of first degree murder over 1974 Paris attack.
ADVERTISEMENTThe international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal has been given a life sentence for the 1974 grenade attack on a Paris shopping arcade.
Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez , once one of the world’s most wanted criminals, was convicted in France of first degree murder.
Two people were killed in the Paris explosion and 34 injured.
Carlos will now serve his third life sentence – having already been convicted of deadly attacks in France in the 1970s and 80s.
Carlos the Jackal gets life sentence for 1974 Paris attack #AFPpic.twitter.com/Tf9863ZPdz
— Aurelia BAILLY (@AureliaBAILLY) March 28, 2017
The 67-zear-old pleaded innocent and denied involvement in the incident.
His lawyers have repeatedly argued against holding the trial, arguing the attack was long ago and that sentencing jailed Carlos would have little effect.
One of the life sentences he is already serving in France is for the murder of two French police officers and an informant in June 1975.
Who is Carlos the Jackal and why is he on trial? https://t.co/VUXYt5Mde2pic.twitter.com/DU5D3FZXkq
— The Week UK (@TheWeekUK) March 13, 2017
The other is for the a series of attacks on trains, a train station and a Paris street in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and wounded about 150 more.
At the start of his trial two weeks ago, Ramirez described himself as a “professional revolutionary”.
The Marxist militant and self-dubbed “elite gunman“became a symbol of Cold War anti-imperialism and a public enemy of Western governments.
Carlos was finally captured in Sudan in 1994.