Jacques Vergès

Jacques Vergès

Birth : 1925-03-05, Ubon Ratchathani, Siam (now called Thailand)

Death : 2013-08-15

History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jacques Vergès, born 5 March 1925 in Ubon Ratchathani, Siam (now called Thailand), is a French lawyer who has earned fame continually since the 1950s, first as an anticolonialist communist figure and then for defending a long string of well-known clients from anticolonialist Algerian militant Djamila Bouhired (his future wife) in 1957-1962 to former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan (2008). His clients have included both leftwing and rightwing terrorists, war criminals, and militants, including Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie (1987), and international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal (1994). In 2002, he offered to represent former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, although Milošević declined any legal advice from any party. The media have sensationalized him with the sobriquet, "the Devil's advocate", and he himself has contributed to his "notorious" public persona by such acts as titling his autobiography The Brilliant Bastard and giving provocative replies in interviews. He claims that when asked if he would have defended Hitler, he replied, "...I'd even defend Bush! But only if he agrees to plead guilty." Description above from the Wikipedia article Jacques Vergès, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

Profile

Jacques Vergès

Movies

In the Darkroom
Documentary about the German Magdalena Kopp, wife and accomplice of political terrorist Carlos the Jackal. The film takes the audience on Magdalena Kopp’s and her daughter's journey beyond the shadows of his myth.
Stéphane Guillon - Portraits au vitriol - 1ère salve
self
Les portraits désormais cultes de Stéphane Guillon sur Canal+ . S'adressant aux invités, il ose un ton inédit, parfois irrévérencieux mais toujours hilarant et taquine avec facétie et perspicacité Jean Dujardin, IAM, Christophe Lambert, Judith Godrèche, Rocco Siffredi, David Douillet, Joey Starr, Fabrice Luchini, Nagui, Marianne James, Bernard Kouchner... Et retrouvez en bonus, les invités en colère qui ne voulaient plus jamais entendre parler de leur portrait !...
Terror's Advocate
Himself
A documentary on Jacques Vergès, the controversial lawyer and former Free French Forces guerrilla, exploring how Vergès assisted, from the 1960s onwards, anti-imperialist terrorist cells operating in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Participants interviewed include Algerian nationalists Yacef Saadi, Zohra Drif, Djamila Bouhired and Abderrahmane Benhamida, Khmer Rouge members Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, once far-left activists Hans-Joachim Klein and Magdalena Kopp, terrorist Carlos the Jackal, lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, neo-Nazi Ahmed Huber, Palestinian politician Bassam Abu Sharif, Lebanese politician Karim Pakradouni, political cartoonist Siné, former spy Claude Moniquet, novelist and ghostwriter Lionel Duroy, and investigative journalist Oliver Schröm.
Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie
Self
Winner of a Best Documentary Academy Award, Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape--with U.S. help--to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.