Carlos the Jackal to go on trial in France for 1974 murder

Carlos the Jackal, who carried out a string of attacks in the 1970s and 80s, is to go on trial again in France for the murder of two people in 1974.

A self-styled professional revolutionary from Venezuela, Carlos the Jackal is accused of throwing a grenade in Paris that also left 34 people wounded.

The notorious convicted killer’s real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.

After years on the run, Carlos the Jackal was caught in 1994 and jailed for life.

An investigating judge specializing in anti-terror cases had ordered the latest prosecution, Le Figaro reported on October 7.

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, 64, had admitted carrying out the September 15, 1974, attack on the Drugstore Saint-Germain in an Algerian newspaper five years later, French media said.

Carlos the Jackal has already been given a life sentence for killing 11 people and wounding another 150 in four attacks dating back to the early 1980s:

• In March 1982, a bomb exploded on a train between Paris and Toulouse, killing five people and wounding 28
• A month later a car bomb attack was mounted on an anti-Syrian newspaper in Paris, with one passer-by killed and 60 injured
• On New Year’s Eve 1983, a bomb on a TGV fast train between Marseille and Paris killed three people and wounded 13
• A bomb at a Marseille train station killed two

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez has also been linked to several other attacks outside France.

Francoise Rudetzki, head of France’s national victims of crime federation, told France Info radio that the latest move was “a victory for justice, the victims and of being able to get a message to the terrorists”.

Whatever the period of time, there would be no escape and they would have to answer for their actions, she said.