France to try Bob Denard
2005-10-03 21:54
Paris - A French court will try former mercenary Bob Denard and 26 others for a 1995 coup attempt on the Comoros Islands, judicial officials said on Monday.
The trial is expected in Paris next year, with a date yet to be fixed in December.
Denard and the 26 others risk up to 10 years imprisonment if convicted of criminal association.
Denard, whose real name is Gilbert Bourgeaud, was once France's top gun-for-hire and led uprisings in the Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Iran and Yemen.
Denard, now age 76, staged a coup on the Comoros Islands in 1978 while head of the presidential guard and ruled the Indian Ocean nation through figurehead presidents until the French forced him out in 1989.
He briefly ruled the Comoros again in September 1995 after toppling the government, but French paratroopers quickly arrested him.
Denard was acquitted in 1999 of the assassination of Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah in 1989.
Denard, who headed the powerful presidential guard at the time, admitted to being with Abdallah but said that another bodyguard, allegedly under the influence of drugs, burst into the room and fired at him, accidentally hitting the president.
Denard portrayed his relationship with Abdallah as that of a close friendship.
"I was a soldier. I was never a killer," Denard told the court.
- AP