Carlos the Jackal: Who is the man behind the nickname?

Carlos the Jackal went on trial today for his role in four bombings in the 1980s. The native-born Venezuelan was once the most sought-after fugitive in Europe before being apprehended in 1994.

His latest wife

Michel Euler/AP
French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre of the man known as Carlos the Jackal, 62-year-old Venezuelan whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez speaks to reporters on her arrival at the court in Paris Monday on the first day of a trial for four deadly attacks in France in 1982-1983.

The Jackal is married to his lawyer, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre. Ms. Peyre has defended mostly radical leftists, including Khmer Rouge leaders, but she has also represented people accused of anti-Semitism and Zacarias Moussaoui, whom the US government accused of being a 9/11 plotter.

Sanchez is a converted Muslim and Ms. Coutant-Peyre was brought up Catholic. They met in 1982 when Coutant-Peyre was working for Jacques Verges, a lawyer who defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie. At the time, Mr. Verges was defending the Jackal’s first wife, Magdalena Kopp, who was sentenced for a planned bombing in Paris. Coutant-Peyre and Mr. Verges initially defended the Jackal, but the Jackal sacked Verges in 1997 and made Peyre his chief lawyer. In 2001 the two were married in a French prison. Peyre is his third wife.

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