Carlos the Jackal: Did France and Sudan strike a 'secret deal' to nail the notorious terrorist?
August 14 marked 26 years since the arrest of Carlos the Jackal, a notorious terrorist who has been given several life sentences for his criminal activities carried out across Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s. Carlos, whose real name is Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, was caught in Sudan by French intelligence agents in 1994 and was brought to France for trial under dramatic conditions since there was no extradition treaty between the two countries.
To give an example of Carlos’s daring missions, in December 1975, he along with five others stormed a meeting of OPEC ministers in Vienna, Austria, and it led to the death of two security guards and a Libyan economist. More than 60 people were taken hostage and Carlos and his squad then took 42 of them to Algiers where the local leadership welcomed them. The same year, he shot dead his former accomplice Michel Moukharbal and two French detectives after he guided them to an apartment in Paris where Carlos was staying.
In 1982, Carlos’s first wife Magdelena Kopp was arrested by the French police and this saw serious retaliation as France witnessed a series of deadly terror attacks that year, including one which targeted Jacques Chiraq, former French president and the then mayor of Paris.
How Carlos was arrested
French and American intelligence officials came with a number of offers to the Sudanese authorities over Carlos’ arrest and the latter cooperated. In 1994, Venezuela-born Carlos was scheduled to have a minor testicular surgery in a hospital in Sudan. However, two days after the operation, Carlos was told by the local authorities that his life could be under threat and he was advised to move to a villa that had personal bodyguards. A day later, the same bodyguards went into Carlos’ room, tranquilized him and tied him when he was asleep and took him out. On August 14, he was handed over to French agents of former French domestic intelligence agency DST and he was flown to Paris to face the law.
The build-up to Carlos' arrest
France’s then hardline interior minister Charles Pasqua told The New York Times after Carlos’ arrest that the French detectives were tipped off earlier in the year that the terrorist had entered Sudan by taking a false name and fake passport. The Sudanese officials were informed about it. The French authorities kept on expecting thereafter that Carlos would be handed over soon, Pasqua added but they were left disappointed several times. Finally, the local authorities confirmed to their French counterparts that Carlos had been identified and were ready to fully comply with the arrest warrants issued by the French judiciary against the man.
Pasqua’s then Sudanese counterpart Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohammed Khair said in a statement in Khartoum that Carlos, who was carrying a passport from an Arab nation, was among a group that was suspected of carrying out attacks on foreign bodies located in the Sudanese capital. Khair alleged that the group was trying to show the world that Sudan supported terrorism. Its northern neighbor Egypt and the US accused it of backing Islamic terrorists, a charge which was refuted by Khartoum. On the other hand, Associated Press reported that the then spokesperson of the Sudan government, Abubaker al-Shingieti, said that Carlos was arrested “in the last few days” along with many others but did not provide details.
He said the group first checked into a leading hotel in Khartoum and then rented an apartment. Its members were kept under surveillance because "they were not conducting any kind of activity to justify their presence" in the African country. He also said some members had left the country but not Carlos. He was also accused of making international calls that were monitored by the government. More fuel was added to the suspicion over Carlos’s intentions after France informed Sudan about his entry and Interpol formally made a request to arrest the man.
The Sudanese government did not waste any time in nailing Carlos, saying it was fulfilling its obligations towards fighting terrorism. After Carlos was handed over to the French officials, a plane carrying him reached the Villacoublay military airport near Paris on the morning of August 14 and after two hours of grilling at the DST headquarters, he was taken to La Sante prison.
Why did Sudan agree to hand over Carlos?
It remained a subject of speculation as to why Sudan handed over Carlos and whether it had a secret deal with France, as reported by The New York Times. According to some experts, one reason why Carlos was handed over is that he was not useful anymore. The man who harbored communist beliefs was no more suited for the times after the end of the Cold War.
"He was an historical anachronism whose ideology does not fit into any present-day form of state-sponsored terrorism," Vincent Cannistraro, a former top CIA counterterrorism official was quoted as saying by The New York Times. "He was of use to no one. He was expendable." He also said that Carlos had become an “embarrassment” even for then Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, a strong regional leader, and that did not help him. He went from Syria to Yemen and then to Sudan, where he was nailed.
From Sudan’s point of view, handing over Carlos was something suitable for its international image as the West listed it as one which sponsored terrorism. "What they did today is a significant development," a source in the state department counterterrorism was quoted by The New York Times as saying.