Probe Sought Of Attempts To Kill Jackal

Lawyers for Carlos the Jackal called on the French government Sunday to investigate a former intelligence chief’s claim that France tried numerous times to kill the self-proclaimed “professional revolutionary.”

In a statement faxed to news media, the lawyers said domestic intelligence head Jean Baklouti told a television interviewer last week that French operatives staged 33 assassination attempts against Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.

Ramirez, 48, is currently on trial in Paris for the 1975 killing of two French intelligence agents and a Lebanese colleague. He was the subject of a documentary broadcast last week on France 2 that featured Baklouti.

Ramirez’s lawyers said French authorities should investigate “immediately the circumstances, those who gave the orders and those who carried out the instructions to commit a crime ordered by French bureaucrats,” the fax said.

The fax was sent by lawyers Isabelle Coutant, Milagros Irureta Ortiz and Hani Souleima.

Last week, when the trial got underway, the public got a rare in-person look at Ramirez, who has managed to outrun authorities for decades while carrying out attacks that he says left 83 dead.

During Friday’s court session, Ramirez declared: “My profession is professional revolutionary.”