A man known as `` Carlos the Jackal '' stood trial in Paris on Monday , accused of fatal bombings in France during the 1980s . The 62-year-old , whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez , was once among the world 's most wanted fugitives . He is on trial for his alleged role in the attacks on two trains , a train station and a newspaper office in France in 1982 and 1983 . The bombings killed 11 and injured more than 100 . The Venezuelan-born revolutionary has been serving a life sentence in France since 1997 , when he was convicted for the shooting deaths of two French secret agents and an informant in 1975 . Ramirez , who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , first made headlines in 1975 when he led an attack on an OPEC meeting in Vienna that took at least 60 hostage , including 11 oil ministers . He was nicknamed `` Carlos the Jackal '' by the press , a reference to the principal character and assassin in Frederick Forsyth 's novel `` The Day of the Jackal . '' After two decades on the run , Ramirez was captured in 1994 in Sudan and taken to Paris in a sack . Entering court dressed casually in jeans and a navy jacket Monday , Ramirez smiled when asked to identify his profession . `` I am a professional revolutionary , '' he replied . Ramirez regularly raised his fist in the air to those sitting in the back of the courtroom who had come to support him . Francis Szpiner , lawyer for some civil parties in the case , said he was not put off by Ramirez 's theatrics . `` I am concerned that 17 years later , we can see that he has n't learned or forgotten a thing . He has not changed a bit , so I expect a difficult trial and the victims will simply have to listen to him with patience and perseverance , '' Szpiner said . Ramirez 's lawyer and wife , Isabelle Coutant-Peyre told reporters outside the courtroom that her client was in a `` fighting mood '' and that she was ready to prove his innocence . `` Let 's be concrete . Ilich Ramirez Sanchez is not implicated by any evidence , '' she said , adding that `` a lie is being prepared for these victims who in turn will never know who was behind the attacks . '' A seven-judge terrorism panel will rule after a six week trial .
`` I am a professional revolutionary , '' Ramirez says in court . After 1982 , Ramirez `` has n't learned '' a thing , an attorney says . The attacks took place in 1983 and 1982 and killed seven people . Ramirez was captured in 17 years in Sudan after two decades on the run .