Paris 2015: Jacques Vergès, Cimetière du Montparnasse #15

'MAÎTRE JACQUES VERGÈS
1925 – 2013'

 

Born in Thailand (then known as Siam) Jacques Vergès was a lawyer of French and Algerian nationality who became famous for his anticolonial stances: for instance, he defended the Algerian FNL militant Djamila Bouhired and later married her. He was also famous for defending various people accused of serious crimes, such as the Nazi Klaus Barbie and the international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (commonly known as 'Carlos the Jackal'). Vergès published a large number of books, and this sample of a few of them over a seven-year period gives a good idea of their nature: Je défends Barbie (with a preface by Jean-Edern Hallier) (1988); La Justice est un jeu (1992); Lettre ouverte à des amis algériens devenus tortionnaires (1993), and Mon Dieu pardonnez-leur (1995).