| Name | Date | Summary (details/verdict) | Vergès’s Intervention/Role |
| Djamila Bouhired | April 1957 > March 1958 | 13th (or 28th) of April 1957: Djamila is arrested and hospitalized for 17 days at Maillot hospital. She is tortured on April 17th, 18th, and 19th. July 11th 1957: Djamila appears in front of the military tribunal. July 15th 1957: end of trial. Djamila and her co-accused are found guilty and fully responsible for the attacks : they are sentenced to death. March 13th/14th 1958: she is pardoned by René Coty, and transferred to la Maison Carrée. |
Feeling that he can only give her the best defense under the proper conditions, Vergès decides at one point to leave the courtroom. In November, he writes Pour Djamila Bouhired with Georges Arnaud. |
| Jeanson Network | October 1960 | In February 1960, police arrested two dozen militants of a network of French citizens who showed support for Algerian FLN militants through urban action. The "Jeanson Network" named after its creator, organized the sheltering of high ranking FLN members while in France and forwarding money for the organization. On September 5th 1960, the "porteurs de valise” (bag carriers) trial begins in front of the military tribunal in Paris. October 1st 1960 : Francis Jeanson, along with several others, is sentenced to ten years of prison. Eight French citizens and one Algerian are acquitted. |
“During three full days, we showed everyone at the trial that they knew nothing about the situation in Algeria, that they were biased, and, to put the icing on the cake, they were ignoring the “exception to the rule” that they were supposed to be applying.” [Source: Vergès, Crime d’état et comédie judiciaire, p. 179] |
| Trial against Vergès and five other lawyers | November 1961 | Charged with Threatening State Security (The six lawyers were accused of directly receiving funds from the FLN according to a pre-established fixed rate - awarded to the six, collectively, to pay for the legal defense of Algerian militants). December 1961: They are released. March 1962: a new trial is opened against them following an appeal from the state. |
The first file contains the names of Mr. Beauvillard, Benabdallah, Oussedik, and Mr.Vergès. Their names were also found on a document seized in Bachir Boumaza’s home in 1968 (Boumaza was a member of the Federation of the FLN in France).The second file concerns Vergès, Benhabdallah, Courrégé, and Zavrian. It is based on the discovery, in the month of June in HoIland, of documents that had been used for the purposes of making false identification and counterfeit currency. (Le Monde, 5-6 nov. 1961) |
| Mahmoud Hedjazi | 1965/1966 (?) | Mahmoud Hedjazi, a member of the group Hassifa and soldier of the Palestinian cause, was sentenced to death on June 12th 1965 in Israel. The judgement was reversed due to mis-trial and PLO and Fatah asked Algeria to find Hedjazi new representation to avoid the possibility of a second death sentence. [Source: Actuel p.139] The second time the trial opened, Vergès, sent by Bouteklika, is his lawyer.Verdict: May 1966, Hedjazi is sentenced to 30 years of prison by the Rehovoth military tribunal (he was found guilty of having fired on border patrol and to have entered Israeli territory with an armed weapon). |
September 1965, Vergès takes steps to defend Hedjazi. [Source: Givet, p. 18 sq.] He meets with his client, then has to return to Europe before coming back for the trial. Instead of returning directly to Paris, Vergès makes a detour through Cyprus. In Beirut, he is welcomed by PLO leaders. The visit does not go unnoticed by the Israeli authorities who declare him persona non grata. 1966: One evening, while reading Le Monde, he learns of the beginning of the trial, 48 hours after it started. (Le Monde, 03.10.1966): “Risking rejection, Mr. Vergès is going to Israel to attend Hedjazi’s trial”. But in Tel Aviv, Vergès soon finds he can’t stay in Israel. He succeeds in writing his defense down on paper and publishing it the following day : therefore, even though he never attended the trial he remains in the collective memory as the lawyer who defended the first fedayin arrested. |
| Moïse Tshombé | 1967 | In 1963, when U.N. forces took hold of Katanga, Tshombé was forced into exile, finding refuge in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and later in Spain. In 1964, he returned to the Congo to take part in a new coalition government and be its prime minister ; but was dismissed from the position a year and a half later by President Joseph Kasavubu. In 1966, Joseph Mobutu, who ousted Kasavubu, accused Tshombé of treason: he is sentenced to death and flees again to Spain.On June 30th 1967, the airplane he is traveling in is highjacked and directed towards Algeria. [Source: Bernard Violet, p. 185 sqq.] On July 21st 1967, the supreme court is favorable to his extradition to the Congo but his fate is in the hands of Boumedienne who hesitates in signing the extradition decree. The affair drags on until the month of October when Tshombé is hospitalized for stomach pains. He finally died on July 1st 1969 of a heart attack. |
June 1967 ( ?) : Vergès accepts the defense of Moïse Tshombé, despite signing an editorial entitled We will avenge Lumumba in the magazine Révolution Africaine. Vergès is solicited by the family to handle his case. Before accepting the case, he meets with Mario Spandre, lawyer and ex-advisor of Tshombé. The following day, the Francophone press announced Vergès’s arrival in the case. Why did he accept? According to Jacques Givet, to better “pluck the family of the African leader” [Source: Givet, p. 25]; Jacquou gives the explanation given to him by his father: “Tshombé is France’s man. Mobutu is the man of the Américans and the CIA. By defending Tshombé, he defends first France, even if he (Tshombé) killed Lumumba.” The family decides to designate another lawyer. Mme Tshombé designated Floriot. Me Spandre remembers Vergès being angered by this. It’s uncertain whether he retained a role as an official advisor. The court of Algiers refused to allow Me Floriot to plead. Only Mr. Benabdallah plead for Tshombé’s defense on July 14th 1967. Tshombé is imprisoned in Algeria up until his death, by heart attack, in 1969. |
| El Al, Athens | December 26th 1968 | Athens, Greece. The FPLP hijacks a plane from the Israeli air company El Al at the Athens airport. The two authors of the attack are Maher Hussein el Yamani and Mahmoud Mohamed Issa (Le Monde). | According to Jacques Givet, Vergès was prohibited from pleading his case a second time. [Source: Givet p. 19.] To be confirmed |
| El Al, Zurich | February 18th 1969 | Four FPLP members attack an El Al boeing at the Zurich airport. The terrorists are arrested, a trial is set for December 1969 (also known as the Winterhur trial) | Genoud prepares the defense. The Union of Arab lawyers is implicated in the case; notably their president M Abderahmane Youssoufi, of Tangiers, a friend of Genoud’s since the 1950s. Two additional lawyers are called, Mr. Omar Bentoumi and J. Vergès, from the Bar of Algiers. Genoud declares having met Waddi Haddad for the first time during the trial. Genoud plays the role of the lawyer during the trial even though he isn’t one. Vergès, who cannot plead, writes for Pour les fidayines. He attends the trial as a spectator, at the side of Genoud. [Source: Violet, p. 167-168] |
| Anis Naccache | 1981 | Anis Naccache’s commando unit (composed of two Iranians, one Palestinian, and one other Lebanese man) targeted Chapour Bakhtiar, former Prime minister of the shah of Iran, in Paris. The mission is a failure: they end up killing two police officers and an elderly neighbor instead. March 10th 1982: Anis Naccache is sentenced to life in prison. July 27th 1990: Anis Naccache gets amnesty and is released. |
The state is behind Nakkache’s liberation: actually, France promised that if the Lebanese hostages were released, they would release Nakkache. But after the hostages were freed, France backed off… Finally, Vergès explains, economic interests came into play. France wanted to sign contracts with Iran, a country that had to reconstruct after confrontations with Irak. Anis Naccache was an obstacle: his attitude during his trial consisted of repeating that he did not want to be defended because “ only God can judge him “ – a phrase that turned him into a hero in Arab and Muslim countries. Moreover, he acted in the name of ayatollah Khomeiny… When Nakkache understands the political underpinnings surrounding his release, he hires Vergès to be his lawyer and help him put pressure on the government and popular opinion. Nakkache starts a hunger strike that he announces will end either with his release or his death. Meanwhile Vergès is in constant communication about the deteriorating health of his client. His work essentially consisted of helping Nakkache apply pressure on the political authorities to “make them keep their word”. |
| Bruno Bréguet and Magdalena Kopp | February 16th 1982 | Over the course of a routine check in a parking lot, two police officers confront Bruno Bréguet (Swiss citizen, wanted for collaborating with the FPLP) and Magdalena Kopp, friend and accomplice of Carlos and Johannes Weinrich (one of the leaders of the west German revolutionary cells). Bréguet tries to shoot at the cops but his pistol jams. They are arrested and the police find 2kg of superpowerful explosives,bottles of gas and grenades in the trunk of their car. All set to explode that night at 10 pm. 02.28.82, Carlos addresses a letter to Deferre (Interior minister), in which he demands their release. 04.22.82, Kopp is sentenced to 4 years of prison and Bréguet is sentenced to 5. |
Vergès defends them. After a record time of two months for the case, they go directly to the correctional facility (instead of first going through Assises court procedure). |
| Orly Attacks/ Garbidjian | July 15th 1983 | Orly Airport Attacks, claimed by the group ASALA, against the company Turkish Airlines. On 07.18.83, Varoujian Garbidjian is arrested. On 03.03.85, he is sentenced to perpetuity. Vergès, Bourguet, and Zavarian defend him. |
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| Georges Ibrahim Abdallah | October 25th 1984 | Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (Abdelkader Saadi), head of FARL, is arrested by the DST in Lyon. His movement executed six attacks committed in Paris between 1981 and 1984. 07.10.86: convicted for detaining illegal arms and explosives and sentenced to 4 years of prison. 03.01.87: convicted a second time for conspiring in terrorists acts and sentenced to perpetuity. |
Defended by Vergès. 03.26.86: Vergès publishes Abdallah’s letter in which he accuses Fabius’s government of not respecting the agreement they had with FARL. On February 28th 1986, he sent a folder to the minister of justice, Michel Crépeau, where he describes the negotiations that took place between Quai d’Orsay and the Algerian government in order that Gilles Peyrolles be liberated in exchange for his release. 04.27.87: Mr. JP Mazurier, one of Abdallah’s lawyers, who was in fact a DST agent, brought back confidential information to counter-espionage agents regarding what France was risking by not releasing Abdallah. He also provided information concerning the distinction between CSPPA and FARL (much more powerful). [Source: Le Figaro, 03.26.1986] |
| Klaus Barbie | May 11th > July 3rd 1987 | February 1983: Barbie is ejected from Bolivia and brought to France. 05.11.1987: Beginning of his trial. 07.03.1987: verdict: Klaus Barbie is sentenced to perpetuity. |
In the week following Barbie’s arrival, Genoud met with La Servette, Barbie’s appointed lawyer. He goes to Lyon, accompagnied by a swiss banker and La Servette also goes to Lausanne. Ute Barbie ,the daughter,tells him that the money was collected for the defense of her father. [Source: Erna Paris, p. 160] 04.27.1983: Barbie sends a letter to Vergès, asking him to defend him. Officially, according to Vergès, it was Ute who asked him to defend her father. According to Karl Laske, Genoud decided to use Vergès to handle Barbie’s defense. The two men were also in contact regarding Bruno Bréguet, one of Vergès’s clients. Vergès initially collaborated with La Servette, however, on June 15th 1983, Servette stepped down from the case under the weight of Vergès’s ever-looming presence and growing controversy surrounding the case.Vergès re-oriented the case, filing an appeal with the Supreme Court regarding Barbie’s kidnapping from Bolivia. During the trial, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Mr. Bermann, asked questions about the source of Nazi war treasure stating that : “the majority of Nazi war treasure was composed of stolen Jewish goods. This treasure was kept in a series of numbered Swiss accounts and controlled by financier François Genoud. Genoud also held the posthumous rights to Hitler’s written works”. Vergès replied: “we aren’t here to try the Nazi war treasure”. Shortly after the end of the trial, Vergès went to Algiers where he met with Charles-Henri Favrod, former journalist and Algerian sympathizer. Vergès told him that: “Barbie is a great guy, you don’t often get the chance to meet people like that”. Favrod also reports that: “While visiting Saint-Joseph prison with Barbie, Vergès, while looking around, asked Barbie: ‘and what’s this little door? ‘That? It’s my torture chamber’, responded Barbie. This anecdote made Vergès laugh.” [Source: entretien Laske/Favrod] |
| Young girl wearing a veil, Creil | 1989 | In the fall of 1989, the exclusion of three Muslim students from attending class at Gabriel-Havez middle school in Creil in the Oise region because of their refusal to take off their veils provokes a national debate. | The first compromise occurs at Creil (october 9th) – After 12 days - the proposition that wearing of veils will be allowed at middle schools but not during class – failed after a Muslim association came to the side of children’s fathers telling them to stay strong. One of the fathers sued the head of the establishment with the help of Jacques Vergès. |
| Action Directe (Lyonnaise branch) | 1989 | Max Frérot, Emile Ballandras, Joëlle Crepet: members of the “lyonnaise branch”, anti-semitic, from Action Directe. Verdict: perpetuity |
Vergès’s Defense: According to him, the file was incomplete. [Source: Le Monde, 05.16.1985] |
| Inspector Dufourg | 1990 (?) | Accused of being involved in the disappearance of Pastor Doucé, inspector Dufourg had his police badge revoked and was sentenced to twenty months of prison by the Nanterre tribunal for having fired shots through the door of an informant. He was found guilty, with investigator Passamanti, of deadly use of a weapon in the execution of his duties and functions as a police officer following the shot he fired into the door of an industry artist who they wanted to used as an informant in the case of the disappearance of Joseph Doucé who disappeared on July 19th at 20 h 30. Today, no one knows who kidnapped and killed Pastor Doucé. |
“The investigation team that had been specially organized by Intelligence in Paris was responsible for putting together political blackmail. With Joseph Doucé, their duty entailed researching facts and information regarding pedophilia as part of their work required putting pressure on political figures who were part of a traffic of young children for sex.» declared Jacques Vergès, lawyer of the inspector who was a member of the group R.G. Jean-Michel Dufourg, after his cross-examination, with Mrs. Delfosse, the judge in Nanterre, who confirmed incarcerating the police officer. What is surprising is that what transpired in Sèvres was not added to the dossier concerning the disappearance of pastor Doucé, conducted by Mrs. le Juge Courcol, in Paris, and the criminal brigade. Pierre Arpaillange, the minister of justice, is personally responsible for separating the two cases. “It’s because the Doucé case is so political. It involves the highest ranking officials in the state, people who were aware from the beginning that pastor Doucé was under surveillance», notes Jacques Vergès. [Source: Jean-Michel Cordier, L’Humanité, september 19, 1990] |
| Moussa Traoré (Mali) | 1991 | Dictator who ordered soldiers to fire on a public crowd in 1991, resulting in the killing of hundreds of people. In 1992, Jean Ziegler, sociologue and Swiss socialist deputy stated in the Libération that Moussa Traoré transferred 1.5 billion francs belonging to Mali to a Swiss bank account. Traoré attacked Ziegler and sued him for defamation. Vergès defended him.The tribunal rejected his request for 100.000 francs in damages : Ziegler ended up only having to pay the dictator a single franc. Other cases : after the student riots where the army open fired on the crowd, Traoré was remouved from power on March 26th 1991. He had been in power since 1968. During the trial of “Crimes of Blood” and “Crimes of Economy” Moussa Traoré was sentenced to death (the sentences were then commuted to life sentences). During both cases, he tries to justify the way he managed affairs in Mali during 23 years, putting the blame for his downfall on a conspiracy between foreign powers. |
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| Cheyenne Brando | 1992 | Marlon Brando’s daughter, accused of being an accomplice in the death of her companion, Dag Drollet, in Tahiti. Charged with being a murder accomplice by a judge from Papeete, and at the request of the father of the deceased, Cheyenne Brando, despite being in France at the time, was put in custody in Orléans, November 15th 1991.Three days later, she leaves France for Tahiti where she is transferred to a detention cell in a hospital center. Released but under surveillance, on November 28 she is finally acquitted thanks to an alibi proving she wasn’t there on May 23rd 1993.She committed suicide on April 16th 1995. |
She was defended first by Vergès, then by Robert Shapiro. |
| Carlos | 1994 / 1995 | August 1994: Carlos is arrested in Sudan. He selects lawyers Mourad Oussedik and Jacques Vergès to defend him. Beginning of 1995, Oussedik leaves Carlos’s defense team. Vergès does the same six months later. |
According to Le Monde, Carlos, when in Bruguière’s office, first asked to be defended by Vergès. But Bruguière already knew about the Stasi documents that inculpated Vergès. Therefore he made it seem like Vergès was unreachable to get Carlos to choose someone else. He does - choosing Oussedik. Bruguière feared that Vergès would also be inculpated, but that never happened... |
| Roger Garaudy | 1996 | Negationist Historian. Roger Garaudy was condemned on February 17th 1998 by the 17th correctional chamber of Paris for “racial defamation” for ideas outlined in his book Les Mythes fondateurs in which, according to the tribunal, he "exaggerated genocide for cynical political ends, insulting the honor of the Jewish people and showing no consideration for their community” and for having “denied crimes against humanity” "and doing so by borrowing largely from revisionist literature that had already been published on the subject". He was ordered to pay 120.000 francs in damages to the following organizations for being found guilty of anti-Semitism and revisionism: la Licra, le Mrap, associations for deported Jewish people. |
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| Affaire du Beach (Congo Brazzaville) | 1999 | Disappearances of large groups of people took place between the 5th and the 14th of May 1999. These people passed through the Democratic Republic of Congo and then returned to Congo Brazzaville by Brazzaville’s river port (called the Beach), thanks to a three party agreement that defined a humanitarian corridor of passage under the auspices of the High Commissioner of Refugees (HCR). The association of parents for disappeared and arrested persons collected witness testimony statements from numerous families regarding the circumstances of the disappearances. During a period that spanned from March to November 1999, they recorded more than three hundred reports of disappearances. One complaint was filed attesting to forced disappearances, crimes against humanity and the soldiers’ universal skill and competence in techniques of torture. | Among the accused, Norbert Dabira, defended by Jacques Vergès.General Dabira was the inspector general of army. He reported directly to the Defense Minister. According to the league of Human rights, who was also a plaintiff in the case, there was no doubt about Dabira’s direct responsibility in the matter. |
| Paul Barril | 2001 | Paul Barril was an officer of the guard, associated with Mitterand’s African foreign policy and had worked with the secret services and the GIGN. He was part of one of the Elysée’s anti-terrorist cells up until 1984. In his case, Barril was accused of planting explosives in the apartment of members of an Irish terrorist group so that French police would have leverage in their negotiations with them and be able to arrest them. 1992: The Irish sue him. 2002: the case is annulled by the Versailles Court of Appeals. |
Commentary made by Vergès after the verdict: “The Appeals court logically sanctioned a file that was a total smoke stack. Paul Barril and Bernard Jégat’s only accuser died seven years ago.” He also added that he wondered why they “had to wait ten years to discover that the legal procedure had been conducted in an irregular manner when it is something that isvery easy to detect." [Source: Le Monde, 01.24.2002] |
| Ivory Coast | 2000 | Laurent Gbagbo accused Henri Conan Bédié, the former president, of getting rich off his presidential tenure and asks Switzerland to freeze his banks accounts. | Jacques Vergès represented the Ivory Coast and Dominique Poncet. |
| Louise-Yvonne Casetta | 2000 | Former RPR treasurer was implicated in Paris’s HLM scandal. She collected occult funds for her party. 11.28.2000: She is initially discharged. 12.2001: She is sentenced to six months of prison with extended sentence. 2005: She is convicted a second time for the creation of fictive RPR job posts and for deceitful Ile-de-France procedures. |
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| Denis Sassou N’Guesso(Congo-Brazzaville), Omar el-Hadj Bongo (Gabon),Idriss Deby (Tchad). | 2001 | Vergès defends both of them in the Verschave case. Verschave, president of the association Survie, an organization that specialized in the publication of “Françafrique” literature, published a book entitled Noir Silence, which offended foreign head of states and resulted in a trial.On July 3rd 2002, the Appeals Court of Paris dismissed the president of Tchad, Deby, the Congolese president Sassou Nguesso and the Gabonese president Omar Bongo. | |
| Gnassingbé Eyadema (Togo) | 2001 | Former self-proclaimed president of Togo and assassin of Sylvanus Olympio in 1963. In 1999, Amnesty International published a horrific report on human rights in Togo. The Togan government hired a group of lawyers, headed by Jacques Vergès, to sue Amnesty International for defamation, and to put pressure for the creation of an independent international commission to take control of the matter and conduct a counter investigation. But the report from 3-member commission, created in June 2000 by the U.N and OUA proved devastating for the regime. They finally dropped charges. | |
| Tarek Aziz | December 2003 | Vice-prime minister of Irak, now gravely ill. | |
| Khieu Samphan | 2004 | Former president of democratic Kampuchéa, accused of crimes against humanity. | |
| Régis Schleicher | November 2005 | In 2003, convicts Michel Ghellam and Jean-Christophe Pedron, and Régis Schleicher, former member of Action directe, attempt to escape from Moulins-Yzeure. | Vergès defends Schleicher. He stated, before the hearings, that: “Régis and I don’t care at all about the facts! Considering the detention conditions and the length of the sentences, it should be one’s duty to break free!”. [Source: Dominique Simonnot, Libération] |