Who Is Carlos The Jackal? Political Terrorist Going Back To Court

One of the world’s most notorious political terrorists was headed back to court Monday for an attack that took place in 1974. Carlos the Jackal, born Illich Ramirez Sanchez, was already behind bars serving two separate life sentences—but Monday’s trial could get him a third. Here are seven facts to know about the lifelong criminal and his new trial.

1. Sanchez was headed to trial over a grenade attack in September 1974. Sanchez, now 67, was set to appear before three judges in Paris Monday to stand trial for a hand grenade attack that took place in a shopping area in the French capital’s Latin Quarter 42 years ago. Two people were killed in the attack and another 34 were injured. The case was previously dismissed for lack of evidence before it was finally reopened.

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2. He’s maintained he was uninvolved in the attack. Sanchez called the upcoming trial “a gross manipulation of justice” and pleaded innocent.

3. His nickname comes from a fictional character. The media began calling Sanchez “Carlos the Jackal” in reference to the novel “The Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth which revolves around a terrorist.

4. Sanchez has been involved in multiple attacks as a self-professed “professional revolutionary.” Among the attacks he’s been linked to or involved in: the shooting of Marks and Spencer’s president Joseph Edward Shieff, a March 1982 bombing on a French train that killed five and wounded 28, a bombing in France on New Year’s Eve in 1983 that killed three and wounded 13 and a number of others.

5. He spent years evading law enforcement before finally standing trial. After perpetrating multiple attacks during the 1970s and 1980s, Sanchez remained on the run. He was finally apprehended in 1994 in Sudan.

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6. Sanchez is serving two separate life sentences already. Sanchez was previously found guilty of four bombings in Paris and Marseille during the 1980s, responsible for killing 11 people and injuring 150.

7. His lawyer is also his fiancée. Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Sanchez’s lawyer and fiancé, maintained the trial is unnecessary. “What exactly is the point of having a trial so long after the events?” she said, according to the BBC.