“Carlos,” the shadowy international terrorist of the 1970s who became a prototype for characters in countless movie and television thrillers, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment Monday by the Paris criminal court.
The sentence was imposed for his murders of two French policemen and a police informer in 1975, when he was under investigation for two attacks on the E1 A1 counter at Orly Airport outside Paris.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed credit and Carlos, a free-lance killer, may have been in their employ.
Carlos was an alias, one of many it is believed, of Illich Ramirez Sanchez, son of a wealthy Venezuelan lawyer. He was reportedly trained by the KGB and sent for further training to Palestinian terrorist camps in Lebanon.
Many bloody escapades were attributed to him, and Carlos once topped the wanted list of international terrorists. But he “retired” and subsequently married a German woman, herself described as a notorious terrorist. They had one child.
He was reportedly sheltered in East Germany until the Communist regime of Erich Honecker collapsed in 1990. He is now said to be drifting between Syria and Libya, countries that are said to have refused repeated requests for his extradition from various European powers.
Should he be returned to France, Carlos would have to be given another trial under French law.
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