Bruno Bréguet

Bruno Bréguet (born 29 May 1950) was a Swiss associate of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as "Carlos the Jackal". He disappeared in 1995.

Career

Israel

In 1970 Bréguet, then 19 years old, traveled to Lebanon to join the PFLP.[1] A few weeks later he was arrested in Israel carrying two kilograms of explosives.[1] He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but was pardoned in 1977 as a result of public advocacy by an international committee of supporters that included Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Noam Chomsky, and Alberto Moravia—as well as Francois Genoud.[1][2][3]

Radio Free Europe bombing

Richard Cummings writes that Bréguet joined Carlos' group in 1980 and took part in its 1981 bombing of Radio Free Europe headquarters in Munich as his first operation.[4] In August 1996 German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Bréguet in connection with that attack.[5]

French missions

In February 1982 Bréguet and Carlos' wife Magdalena Kopp (fresh from a failed 18 January 1982 mission to destroy the Superphénix nuclear power plant in France) were arrested in an underground parking garage in Paris, and attempted to kill the police with a gun that misfired. After bombs were found in the car, they denied they were on a terrorist mission. Carlos' organization set off several bombs in retaliation, and he then wrote to French interior minister Gaston Defferre demanding their release. When the letter was leaked to the press, the publicity ended in the pair getting lighter prison sentences with the attempted murder charge dropped. It was later said that they had been hired to bomb the Paris office of the magazine Al Watan al Arabi at 33 Rue Marbeuf, which was eventually hit on 22 April 1982.[6]

Bréguet and Kopp were both paroled in 1985.[7]

Disappearance

Bréguet was last seen on 12 November 1995 on board a ferry from Italy to Greece.[3][8] There are various theories and rumors regarding his disappearance. His family has charged that he was kidnapped by the Greek or French secret service.[3][9] According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the German government believes that he went into hiding because of evidence against him in recently released Stasi files.[9] The Sunday Herald reported in 2009 that there had been "persistent rumours that Bréguet died during interrogation at a secret CIA facility in Hungary at the end of 1995."[8] Others have speculated that he was killed by former associates, or cooperated with authorities and has since been living under a new identity.[9][10] In 2009 Carlos wrote to newly elected US President Barack Obama alleging that Bréguet had been kidnapped by "CIA agents backed by Nato naval commandos" and asking for information on his current whereabouts.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Follain, John (1998). Jackal: the complete story of the legendary terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. Arcade Publishing. p. 138.
  2. ↑ Lee, Martin A.; Kevin Coogan (May 1987). "Killer's on the Right—Inside Europe's Fascist Underground". Mother Jones. p. 52.
  3. 1 2 3 Lassueur, Yves (18 January 1996). "L'étrange disparition du Suisse Bruno Breguet". L'Hebdo (in French).
  4. ↑ Cummings, Richard H. (2009). Cold War Radio The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950–1989. McFarland. pp. 100, 103.
  5. ↑ "Suspect Sought in 1981 Bombing". Eugene Register-Guard. 26 August 1996.
  6. ↑ Holy war. Wilhelm Dietl. Macmillan, 1984. ISBN 0-02-531530-7, ISBN 978-0-02-531530-3. p. 150
  7. ↑ Follain 186
  8. 1 2 3 "Carlos the Jackal asks Obama for help in tracking down 'disappeared' terrorist". Sunday Herald. 28 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009. mirror
  9. 1 2 3 Anastasopoulou, Irene (14 January 2003). "Magdalena Kopp's life with The Jackal". ekathimerini.com.
  10. ↑ "Anti-terror net to be cast wider". ekathimerini.com. 22 August 2002.
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