European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 26, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday. October 26. 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 Barbie s lawyer a French Enigma by Jeffrey Ulbrich associated press t he Calm. Expressionless eurasian lace peering through the steel rimmed spectacle belies a ferocious  the stoic mask is a revolutionary provocateur a charmer a calculating intelligence waiting to pounce. Jacques verges the 60-year-old Paris lawyer defending nazi War criminal Klaus Barbie is an Enigma. Resistance lighter. Former member of the communist party. Publisher of revolutionary periodicals. Defender of algerian rebels. Palestinian guerrillas and european terrorists. Verges indeed seems an unlikely candidate to take up Barbie s cause. The lawyer s career has seen a year s suspension foreign adventures attention grabbing headlines and a mysterious eight year disappearance about which he refuses to speak. Verges it vehement in his attacks on the French state the establishment. He is articulate on subjects that arouse his passion. He is vague on certain aspects of his past his relationships with such personalities As pol pot. Raymond Barre and Ahmed Ben Bella. He has been the subject of much speculation and Many outrageous articles but he never denies anything said about him you can draw from my biography the conclusions that you  he says. I contradict no theory. Bui there is a common thread in All of his cases a systematic attack on the state and the judicial system. And he admits a sympathy with people who Are at Odds Wilh society and its morals. My Law is to be against  he says in one of his several published works my moral is to be against  but Why Barbie who is awaiting trial in Lyon for crimes against humanity stemming from his world War ii activities Given the person not real but mythological fabricated Lor political reasons by the government and the Media. I think it is the duty of a lawyer to defend him " verses said in an interview. I think thai an accused has the tight to a defense and nol a parody of a  verges View Barbie was insignificant an fab Captain who would have remained Anonymous in history were it nol Lor the fact that he was  Wilh the arrest and death of Jean Moulin the greatest hero of the French resistance. Verges believes that Moulin was betrayed by the resistance itself during internal squabbling. And it is i intention to make the trial a trial of the resistance. Verges a twin was born March 5. 1925 in Ubon. Siam. Later Thailand the son of a French Diplomat and a vietnamese woman. His lather. Raymond verges originally from the French Indian Ocean Island of reunion was in charge of the French consulate at Ubon in 1925. He resigned and set up shop As a doctor in Laos. I was eurasian born at a time when this characteristic was Dill cull to  Jacques verges says referring to the colonial period when racism was common and one did t marry the natives. The family returned 10 reunion in 1928 and Jacques spent his youth there attending the Lychee is. Denis where he was a classmate of Raymond Barre. Later to become Premier of France and currently a presidential hopeful. Verges brother Paul now is Secretary general of the communist parly of reunion. During world War ii. At the age of 17. Jacques verges joined the free French forces in England later serving in Algeria Morocco. Italy. France and Germany. Demobilized in Paris he did his University studies in Oriental languages history and Law. In 1945. He joined the communist parly. During i student years verges headed the Liaison committee Between the different associations of colonial students. It was at that Lime thai he met pol pol then head of the Khmer students association later to head the bloody communist regime in Cambodia during the 1970s. From 1951 to 1954. Verges lived in Prague. Czechoslovakia As Secretary of the International Union of students where he met the likes of Olal palme later prime minister of Sweden Alexander Shulepin. Eventually to become head of the Soviel Kab and a member of the politburo and Giovanni Ber Luguer brother of the late italian communist party Leader. Vernes returned to France in 1955 and took his oath As a lawyer at the Paris bar. I am fascinated by life he said in a Magazine interview. I take on very diverse causes. I get As excited Wilh a Case As a filmmaker does with the rushes. The offence the crime is the revelation of a fracture in the social order. There is no social order without  his first Case was thai of Djamila Bou hired. A Young algerian woman accused of being part of a bombing network during the algerian War Lor Independence against the French. At the end of the War verges married her converted to islam and look the name Mansour. The algerian National liberation front asked verges to Lake charge of a group of lawyers formed to defend rebels. He became a terror of the courts attacking the judicial system. In his latest Book to finish with Pontius Piulle. Verges writes the accused has an interest when the circumstances permit in reversing the roles. He makes himself the accuser and master of the questions to opens a second front on terrain chosen by  in 1961. He was suspended Lor a year for his courtroom la clips and attacks on judges. He then went to Morocco where he worked As a Liaison  Between the rebel algerian army and other african Independence movements. Alter algerian Independence in 1962. He returned to Algeria and became Counselor to the foreign minister and later edited the weekly revolution afric me the official Organ of the ruling National liberation front Bui a year later he left Algiers following political differences with president Ben  Back in Paris. Verges founded a pro chinese monthly. Among its writers was the first wife of Che Guevara. Verges made numerous trips to China and met with Mao tse lung several times. Abandoning the Magazine he went Back to Algiers in 1965 and set up a Law practice. Using his French passport he went to Israel at the request of the Palestine liberation organization and the algerian government to defend the first palestinian guerrilla put on irial there. He was expelled from the country subsequently he defended other palestinians in Greece and Switzerland on charges of hijacking. In March 1970, verges told friends he was travelling to Alicante. Spain he was not seen again until late 1978. Where was he he won t Sny. I do riot have the intention of running Lor office of becoming a minister so the employment of my years and my nights belong to me he said in an interview. And the speculation ii amuses to because Nono of the speculation is Ever the same " among the most prevalent theoties is that he ten wed his Inen ship with pol pot and participated in those bloody years in Cambodia. Verges neither confirms nor denies it. Since then he has continued to take on con Loversia cases armenian bombers and other terrorists. Allol these cases reveal problems of our  he said in the Magazine interview. Wilh Barbie it is an attempt to make Public opinion believe thai barbarity began in the world in 1939. And that it ended in 1945." verges is expected again to use his Bulldozer tactics when Barbie comes to trial. Georges Arnaud. A Friend of verges Saio in a Book about the algerian trials that the lawyer s Lero cily was served by an unequalled intelligence a Lively propensity Lor striking the enemy to the ground even harder when he is on his Knees