How do you spell chutzpah in French?
Carlos the Jackal, imprisoned for life, looks in lawsuit to protect his image
Long before Osama bin Laden, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal, was the most famous terrorist of his era, bursting onto the scene with a spectacular hostage-taking of 11 OPEC oil ministers in 1975 and feeding his fame with more bloody attacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Ramírez, described by the spy novelist Robert Ludlum as “the most dangerous man of all times,” has been the subject of numerous books and films over the past two decades, not all of them flattering. But apparently determined to control his image even from his Paris prison cell, he has brought suit against a French production company shooting a documentary film on his life and legend, demanding a say on the final cut.
Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, the lawyer representing Ramírez, said that Ramírez is demanding that the Film in Stock production company hand over a master copy of the documentary as soon as it is finished and grant him three months to review the content and impose changes. Anything else, she said in an interview Monday, would violate his intellectual property rights to his name and “biographical image.”
Rather than giving him a death sentence, the terrorist is concerned about his civil rights:
Coutant-Peyre, who is Ramírez’s wife as well as his attorney, said the documentary, being shot for France’s Canal Plus television network, would likely be a propaganda film unless she and her husband were granted a right to oversee its accuracy. She charged that statements by the producers indicate they plan to portray Ramírez as the instigator of terrorist attacks for which he has not been convicted, violating his right to presumption of innocence.
Can’t wait for KSM and the pantybomber to invoke the same privilege in a court in New York.
It’s nice that the Washington Post must not have any fact checkers any more as Isabelle Coutant-Peyre’s so-called marriage to Ramirez was a Muslim ceremony that was not binding by law. The marriage was not registered with the civil authorities for the simple reason that both were still married at the time. Poor Isabelle still can’t get that all important conjugal visit.
I’ve got a buck that says Rep. Mary Bono Mack introduces the “Carlos the Jackal Personal Copyright Protection Act of 2010” any day now. It’s purpose will be to protect politicians and other “public figures” from online ridicule by extending an automatic copyright to one’s personality, foibles, and actions.