Jacques Verges was one of the world's most courageous and extraordinary lawyers, who was referred to as the "devil's advocate", "terrorism lawyer", and the "defender of heroes" by others.
In the past, he became one of the brightest lawyers in the world, making a habit of defending the most notorious criminals, from Nazi war criminal Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie to Turkish criminal Abdullah Çatlı, from Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic to "Jackal" Carlos.
His real name is Jacques Camille Raymond Vergès. He was born in Thailand on March 5, 1925, on the French island of Reunion, as one of the twin children of a Catalan physician and diplomat father (Raymond Vergès) and a Vietnamese teacher mother (Pham Thi Khang). His twin brother Paul Vergès is a politician.
Jacques Vergès (5 March 1925 – 15 August 2013) was a Siamese-born French lawyer and anti-colonial activist. Vergès began as a fighter in the French Resistance during World War II, under Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces. After becoming a lawyer, he became well known for his defense of FLN militants during the Algerian War of Independence.
His father was the French consul and was fired from his consulate position for marrying his mother. He lost his mother to malaria when he was only 3 years old. He returned to Catalonia with his father and brother and started school there. He became interested in politics when he was only 12 years old. Verges, who grew up on Reunion Island in France, joined the Reunion Communist Party at a young age. He fought a relentless struggle against colonialism and colonialists throughout his life. He joined the anti-Nazi resistance. After the war, he studied law at the University of Paris and became a world-famous lawyer.
He became a member of the French Communist Party in 1945 due to the resistance launched by the communists against the Nazis, and despite the objections, he explained his membership of the French Communist Party with the words "It was the only party that opposed colonialism." In 1950, he was elected to the management of the International Student Union Congress in Prague, of which he was a member, and 2 years later he was appointed secretary.
Vergès first made his name known by supporting General De Gaulle, who was sentenced to death. However, he gave up on this due to De Gaulle's attitude in the Algerian war and the Free French Forces' failure to take the necessary stance.
During France's war with Algeria in the 1950s, he defended the National Liberation Front by opposing France at the risk of risking his life. He defended and saved Cemile Buhayred, one of the legendary female militants of the National Liberation Front, an Algerian organization that fought for independence against France, from execution. He later married Cemile Buhayred (1957–1962).
Jacque Vergès became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Algerian Prime Minister Amar Bentoumi. 1962
After the independence of Algeria in 1962, he settled in the capital Algiers, and became a senior manager at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, even though he had two children, he got bored of Algeria and left the country.
Jacques Vergès was injured during a demonstration in support of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba (60s).
He disappeared between 1970-78 and was not heard from throughout this period. According to some rumors about this period, he was hiding with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. There were also those who claimed that he was in Palestine or that he was escaping from his debt to African dictators. Despite persistent questions from journalists, he never talked about this period. However, he couldn't help but give a few clues: "I was quite east of France, I was a little bit everywhere, but I wasn't with Pol Pot," he said. It was later revealed that he was living in Paris with a fake identity.
After his identity was revealed in Paris in 1978, he started practicing law again, defending defendants who were not defended. Nazi war criminal Gestapo Claude Barbier, French philosopher Roger Garaudy, who claimed that the Jewish genocide was not real, Venezuelan revolutionary Carlos the Jackal, Lebanese activist George Ibrahim Abdullah, Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who ordered the massacre of Muslims, Saddam Hussein's deputy Taha Ramazan and others in France in 1998. He also defended the captured Turkish mafia leader Alaaddin Çakıcı. Vergès, who also wanted to defend Saddam Hussein and Abdullah Öcalan, could not take these cases due to the opposition of their families.
Jacques Vergès, known as the "Devil's Advocate", defended some of the people he defended in important cases:
-Tariq Aziz (Iraqi deputy prime minister)
-Klaus Barbie (German SS officer Gestapo)
-Paul Barril (French captain)
-Djamila Bouhired (Algerian female resistance fighter and folk hero)
-Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (Carlos the Jackal)
-Roger Garaudy (French thinker, and writer)
-Slobodan Milošević (president of Serbia and former Yugoslavia, nicknamed the Serbian Butcher)
-Idriss Déby (President of Chad)
-Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congolese president)
-Abdoulaye Wade (president of Senegal)
-Laurent Gbagbo (former president of Ivory Coast)
-Omar Raddad (Moroccan gardener)
He gave the following interesting answer to those who asked why he became Saddam Hussein's lawyer: "If I were to choose between a dog and a wolf, I would prefer to be the lawyer of the wolf. Especially if that wolf is injured..."
Although his defense of violent criminals was criticized a lot, his response to these criticisms was as follows: “Hippocrates said, I do not treat the disease, I treat the patient. We do not advocate crime or murder. What we are trying to do is to illuminate the path that leads a normal person like us to become a criminal. How can a person like us become a criminal? By trying to shed light on that process, we are actually helping society prevent crime or murder.”
Vergès, a chess enthusiast, wrote approximately 20 books. In 2007, Barbet Schroder shot a documentary about Verges called 'The Terror Lawyer'.
He died of a heart attack on August 15, 2013, at the age of 88. His grave is in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.