Jacques Vergès

The eminent lawyer died in Paris on August 15, 2013 after a long illness followed by a fall several months earlier. Vergès died in the bedroom of the renowned French writer Voltaire.

The reputed attorney was proud of his multiracial heritage and even converted to Islam. He authored more than 20 non-fiction books.

Jacques Vergès was born on March 5, 1925 in Ubon Ratchathani, part of Rattanakosin Kingdom in Siam. His mother was Pham Thi Khang, an ethnic Vietnamese woman, while his father, Raymond Vergès, was a French diplomat. His mother died when he was 3 years old.

Jacques spent the majority of his childhood in Reunion, the French island. He had a twin brother named Paul. As a young boy, his father taught him how to throw stones at older bullies.

In 1942, at age 17, the adolescent lad traveled to England to join the ‘Free French Forces’ led by Charles de Gaulle. He then fought as part of the anti-Nazi resistance forces.

In 1945, Vergès joined the ‘French Communist Party’. Later in the same year, he enrolled at the ‘University of Paris’, studying law.

He became president of the ‘Association for Colonial Students’ (AEC), in 1949. He thus met fellow AEC member Pol Pot.

In 1950, moved to Prague to lead a Communist youth organization. There he met Erich Honecker and Alexander Shelepin.

Vergès then moved to France in 1954 to pursue a career as a lawyer. He quickly gained infamy for his eagerness to take on controversial cases.

Jacques Vergès is internationally known for representing controversial clients, the most notorious of which was convicted Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in 1987. The legal practitioner developed a trademark style dubbed as the ‘rupture strategy’, wherein he defended his clients by charging the prosecution with the same offenses.