Jacques Vergès was a Siamese-born French lawyer and anti-colonial activist. Vergès began as a fighter in the French Resistance during World War II, under Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces. After becoming a lawyer, he became well known for his defense of FLN militants during the Algerian War of Independence. He was later involved in a number of controversial and high-profile legal cases, with a series of defendants charged with terrorism, serial murder, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. This includes Nazi officer Klaus Barbie "the Butcher of Lyon" in 1987, terrorist Carlos the Jackal in 1994, and former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan in 2008. He also defended infamous Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy in 1998 as well as members of the Baader-Meinhof gang. As a result of taking on such clients, he garnered criticism from members of the public, including intellectuals Bernard-Henri Lévy and Alain Finkielkraut, political-activist Gerry Gable as well as Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld.
Jean-Luc Nancy was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre, a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. Nancy is the author of works on many thinkers, including La remarque spéculative in 1973 on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Le Discours de la syncope (1976) and L'Impératif catégorique (1983) on Immanuel Kant, Ego sum (1979) on René Descartes, and Le Partage des voix (1982) on Martin Heidegger.
In the 1980s and 1990s there were, in the Paris region (Île-de-France), multiple instances of alleged and proved political corruption cases, as well as cases of abuse of public money and resources. Almost all involved were members of the conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) ruling party, which became the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in 2002.
Guillaume de Nogaret was a French statesman, councilor and keeper of the seal to Philip IV of France.
Philippe Delorme is a French historian and journalist, whose articles have appeared in Point de Vue, Point de Vue Histoire, and Valeurs actuelles, among others.
Gaston Ghrenassia , known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is a French singer, songwriter and musician of Algerian Jewish descent.
Jacques Peyroles, better known by his pen name Gilles Perrault, was a French writer and journalist.
The Outreau case refers to a criminal case of pedophilia which took place between 1997 and 2000 in Outreau in northern France and a partial judicial error which led to provisional detentions between 2001 and 2004. Following alerts launched by social services within the Delay family, a long investigation seemed to reveal an extensive pedophile network: around forty adults had been accused and around fifty children were potentially victims.
Jacques Bouveresse was a French philosopher who wrote on subjects including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of mathematics and analytical philosophy. Bouveresse was called "an avis rara among the better known French philosophers in his championing of critical standards of thought."
Georges Vincent Antoine Fenech is a French former magistrate and politician. A member of The Republicans (LR), he represented the 11th constituency of the Rhône department in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2008 and again from 2012 until 2017. He has been a legal affairs consultant for the CNews television channel since 2017.
Charles Spaak was a Belgian screenwriter who was noted particularly for his work in the French cinema during the 1930s. He was the son of the dramatist and poet Paul Spaak, the brother of the politician Paul-Henri Spaak, and the father of the actresses Catherine Spaak and Agnès Spaak.
Paul Meurisse was a French actor who appeared in over 60 films and many stage productions. Meurisse was noted for the elegance of his acting style, and for his versatility. He was equally able to play comedic and serious dramatic roles. His screen roles ranged from the droll and drily humorous to the menacing and disturbing. His most celebrated role was that of the sadistic and vindictive headmaster in the 1955 film Les Diaboliques.
Julien Friedler, a writer and contemporary artist, was the leading figure in the visual art movement known as Be art. Friedler was born in 1950 in Brussels.
Serge Guinchard is a French jurist who formerly taught at the Law School of Dakar and Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 and most recently at Panthéon-Assas University, where he is now Professor emeritus. He has also held political posts in the metropolitan government of Lyon.
L'Affaire Chebeya is a documentary directed by Thierry Michel that was released in February 2012. The award-winning film explores the assassination of a human rights activist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the subsequent trial.
Patrick Maisonneuve is a French lawyer of criminal law. He began his legal practice in 1979, and is known for taking on widely reviled high-profile clients that other lawyers have shunned. In 2013 and 2014 GQ ranked him the sixth most powerful lawyer of France.
In French law, the ministère public or le parquet is the authority charged with defending the interests of society and of the application of law. It is primarily made up of magistrates, but is sometimes represented by other persons such as police officials. Its magistrates can be referred to as "standing" magistrates, as opposed to magistrats du siège. Its closest equivalent in some English-speaking countries is the director of public prosecutions and the attorney general in others.
Julien Belin was a French composer and lutenist active in the second half of the 16th century; he died after 1584.
Frank Berton is a French attorney best known for his work with L'affaire d'Outreau and the November 2015 Paris attacks. He specializes in Penal Law and Press Rights law.
The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare is a Netflix original documentary series on the Outreau case, a criminal case of pedophilia which took place between 1997 and 2000 in Outreau in northern France. The series features the child abuse allegations that led to a judicial disaster, revisiting the complex and controversial Outreau case.
