Ilich Ramírez Sánchez
| Ilyich Ramírez Sánchez | |
|---|---|
KGB photo (1970s)
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| Born |
12 October 1949 Michelena, Táchira, Venezuela |
| Other names | Carlos Carlos the Jackal |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Imprisoned since 1994 |
| Spouse(s) |
Magdalena Kopp Lana Jarrar Isabelle Coutant-Peyre |
| Conviction(s) | 16 murders |
Ilyich Ramírez Sánchez (pronounced: [ilitʃ raˈmiɾes santʃes]; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan terrorist currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder of an informant for the French government and two French counter-intelligence agents. While in prison he was further convicted of attacks in France that killed 11 and injured 150 people and sentenced to an additional life term in 2011, and then to a third life term in 2017.
A committed Marxist-Leninist, Ramírez Sánchez is commonly described as one of the most notorious political terrorists of his era. When he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970, recruiting officer Bassam Abu Sharif gave him the code name "Carlos" because of his South American roots. After several bungled bombings, Ramírez Sánchez achieved notoriety for the 1975 raid on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) headquarters in Vienna, which killed three people. This was followed by a string of attacks against Western targets. For many years he was among the most-wanted international fugitives. Carlos was dubbed "The Jackal" by The Guardian after one of its correspondents reportedly spotted Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel The Day of the Jackal near some of the fugitive's belongings.
For his part, Ramírez Sánchez denied the 1975 French killings, saying they were orchestrated by Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and condemned Israel as a terrorist state. During his trial in France in 1997, he said, "When one wages war for 30 years, there is a lot of blood spilled—mine and others. But we never killed anyone for money, but for a cause—the liberation of Palestine."
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