Jean-Louis Bruguière

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Jean-Louis Bruguière
Bruguière in 2014
Born (1943-05-29) 29 May 1943 (age 81)
Tours, France
EducationSciences Po
French National School for the Judiciary
OccupationMagistrate

Jean-Louis Bruguière (French pronunciation:

US Department of Treasury to oversee the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.[2]

Biography

The latest in a long line of magistrates (eleven generations), Bruguière studied at the

pimps (in particular the Madame Claude
network), eventually having to work under police protection.

In 1982 Bruguière declared accused Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity and Sagawa was extradited from France to Japan where he was eventually released.[3]

Following street gunfire in 1982, Bruguière turned himself towards anti-terrorism, expanding his network and targeting in particular the

Carlos (the Jackal)[citation needed
].

Possibly his biggest case (in terms of number of people involved) was that of

Sahara Desert in 1989 with the loss of 170 lives. Bruguière was instrumental in having six Libyans prosecuted in Paris and convicted in absentia. However, in the 2001 book Manipulations Africaines, he was accused by the French journalist Pierre Péan of having deliberately ignored evidence pointing to Lebanon, Syria and Iran in order to put the blame on Libya.[4]

He was also instrumental behind the controversial 1998 mass trial of 138 suspected members of the "

Armed Islamic Group (GIA) during the Algerian Civil War.[5]

Bruguière counselled Italian senator

1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. The Mitrokhin Commission has been discredited following a manipulation by a network to defame Prime minister Romano Prodi and other political opponents of Berlusconi, by claiming they worked for the KGB. The network included Mario Scaramella, arrested in December 2006, the head of SISMI Nicolò Pollari, n°2 of SISMI Marco Mancini (both indicted in the Abu Omar case), as well as Robert Seldon Lady, CIA station chief in Milan, also indicted in the Imam Rapito affair.[6][7]

He was called as a witness in May 2007 by the defendants of a trial involving members suspected to have provided logistical support to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), involved in the 2003 Casablanca bombings. He had been in charge of the investigations concerning this case, and the defendants' lawyer questioned his methods.[8]

He sits on the Board of Advisors of the Chertoff Group, headed by Michael Chertoff.[9]

Rwanda

His controversial report into the April 1994

Elysee Palace
and had an obscure role in Rwanda before 1994.

Le Figaro points the international dimension of the character and his contacts with intelligence agents, both in Russia and in the United States, cited justice colleagues of Bruguière, who criticize him for "favourizing the

raison d'état over the law."[12] Bruguiere's findings about the death of Habyarimana later were contradicted by the more exhaustive and documented investigation for the Cour d'Appel de Paris, Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris by Magistrates Natalie Poux and Marc Trevidic, which found that the missile that downed his plane came from the Presidential Guard camp, Kanombe, where European military cooperation officers were lodged.[13]

Political career

Bruguière left his civil function as a magistrate and provided his support, in March 2007, to the right-wing candidate

Parti Radical Valoisien, in the third circonscription of the Lot-et-Garonne department, for the June 2007 legislative elections. Bruguière was defeated by his Socialist competitor, Jérôme Cahuzac, gaining only 41,71% at the second round against 52,29% for Cahuzac.[14]

Investigating alleged corruption at PACE

In late May 2017, Bruguière was appointed a member of the independent external investigation body to look into allegations of corruption within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).[15]

Honours

Memoirs

References

  1. ^ a b Priest, Dana (17 November 2005). "Foreign Network at Front of CIA's Terror Fight". The Washington Post.(in English)
  2. ^ Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, Press Release – Hearings of SWIFT representatives and Judge Bruguière, 8 April 2009
  3. ^ Morris, Steven (20 September 2007). "Issei Sagawa: Celebrity Cannibal". New Criminologist. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
  4. ^ (in French) Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen
  5. ^ "Mass trial 'a pantomime'". The Independent. 2 September 1998.
  6. ^ Il falso dossier di Scaramella – "Così la Russia manipola Prodi", La Repubblica, 11 January 2007 (in Italian)
  7. ^ International Herald Tribune, 9 January 2007, "How one man insinuated himself into poisoning case". see here (in English)
  8. ^ M. Bruguière est cité comme témoin devant un tribunal, Le Monde, 1 June 2007 (in French)
  9. ^ "Chertoff Group Board of Advisors". Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  10. ^ Bennhold, Katrin (21 October 2006). "French judge seeking to bring Rwandan president before UN tribunal – Africa & Middle East – International Herald Tribune". The New York Times.
  11. L'Express
  12. ^ Le Figaro, 22 November 2006, "Un magistrat provocateur", p.2 (in French)
  13. ^ Rapport d'Expertise Destruction en Vol du Falcon 50 Kigali Rwanda, 5 January 2012. Numero d'instruction 2272/00/13 and 1341.
  14. ^ M. Bruguière rate son parachutage, mais a déjà "vécu des situations beaucoup plus difficiles", Le Monde, 18 June 2007 (in French)
  15. ^ Allegations of corruption within PACE: appointment of the members of the external investigation body, coe.int, 30 May 2017
  16. ^ "Bruguière, Jean-Louis (Judge)". ict.org.il.
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