Carlos the Jackal jailed for life for 1974 Paris grenade attack

A Paris court on Monday jailed self-styled professional revolutionary Carlos, known as “the Jackal”, to life for a 1974 grenade attack in Paris that killed two people.

The court determined that the 67-year-old Venezuelan, once Europe’s most wanted man, was guilty of throwing a grenade into a busy shop and cafe, the Drugstore Saint-Germain, on the city’s Left Bank.

Prosecutors had argued he carried out the attack to put pressure on the French government to yield to the demands of Japanese pro-Palestinian gunmen who had taken hostages at the French embassy in The Hague.

Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, is already serving two life sentences for other attacks going back to the 1970s and 1980s.

Defence lawyer Francis Vuillemin denounced the verdict, telling journalists that the “media’s truth” had overwhelmed the “judicial truth” and influenced the judges.

He also accused French security services of manipulating witnesses who testified against Carlos during the two-week trial.