Notorious 'Carlos' Receives His Third Life Sentence

The man known as "Carlos the Jackal" has been convicted in a French court of a deadly 1974 attack on a Paris shopping arcade and sentenced to life in prison for the third time, the AP reports. The Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez is already serving two life sentences in France for murders and attacks he was convicted of perpetrating or organizing in the 1970s and '80s. Sanchez, who belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was once the most wanted fugitive in the world before his arrest in Sudan in 1994, notes the BBC.

As the trial wrapped up Tuesday, the 67-year-old known worldwide as "Carlos" denounced "an absurd trial" for a 42-year-old crime. Carlos had denied involvement, saying there was no proof against him. Five judges found Carlos, the only defendant, guilty of throwing a grenade onto a shopping area, killing two and injuring 32. When the trial began earlier this month, he had said, "In all the fighting, there were collateral victims—it's unfortunate." (More Carlos the Jackal stories.)