FEEL IT.STREAM
Jacques Vergès

Jacques Vergès

Acting

Biography

Jacques Vergès (French pronunciation: [ʒak vɛʁʒɛs]; 5 March 1925 – 15 August 2013) was a French-Algerian lawyer of Vietnamese origin 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. He was later involved in a number of controversial and high-profile legal cases, with a series of defendants charged with terrorism, serial murder, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. This includes Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, "the Butcher of Lyon", in 1987, terrorist Carlos the Jackal in 1994, and former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan in 2008. He also defended infamous Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy in 1998, as well as members of the Baader-Meinhof gang. As a result of taking on such clients, he garnered criticism from members of the public, including intellectuals Bernard-Henri Lévy and Alain Finkielkraut, political activist Gerry Gable and Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld. Vergès attracted widespread public attention in the 1950s for his use of trials as a forum for expressing views against French colonial rule in Algeria, questioning the authority of the prosecution and causing chaos in proceedings – a method he promoted as "rupture defense" in his book De la stratégie judiciaire. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1960 and temporarily lost his license to officially practice law. He was a supporter of the Palestinian fedayeen in the 1960s. He would later disappear from 1970 to 1978, without ever explaining his whereabouts during that period. An outspoken anti-imperialist, he continued his vocal political activism in the 2000s, including opposing the war on terror. The media sensationalized his activities with the sobriquet "the Devil's advocate",[note 2] and Vergès himself contributed to his "notorious" public persona by such acts as titling his autobiography The Brilliant Bastard and giving provocative replies in interviews, such as "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.​

Known For

The Abdallah Case
8.5

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian communist resistance fighter, is France's longest-serving political prisoner. Incarcerated for 40 years, he remains a symbol. He was suspected of being behind the attacks that sowed chaos in 1980s Paris and was convicted of murdering two diplomats. In the film *The Abdallah Affair*, which Pierre Carles dedicates to him, we discover a deeply troubling story: a country choosing an ideal scapegoat. An incredible piece of fake news and intense pressure exerted by the United States on France are at the root of this extraordinary length of detention. The official media machine went into overdrive, serving a national interest, blind and deaf to all the ambiguities of this case, which this documentary exposes. Georges Abdallah was imprisoned in France for nearly 41 years. Wrongfully. At 74, he managed to leave prison, standing tall, his political convictions intact.

The Abdallah Case

2026Movie
Terror's Advocate
6.6

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.

Terror's Advocate

2007Movie