Carlos The Jackal's Lawyer Enjoys Reputation As A Villain -- Notorious Attorney Is Called `The Devil's Advocate'

PARIS - Once every few weeks, Carlos the Jackal is brought from prison to the office of France's top terrorist investigator for questioning. And it's always a game. Carlos chatters aimlessly, tries to make his interrogator laugh, asks impertinent questions and answers none himself.

But the most controversial - some say the most dangerous - man in the room isn't the notorious international terrorist but rather his lawyer, Jacques Verges. The attorney, expressionless behind wire-rimmed glasses, doesn't move and rarely utters a word.

"He is a terrorist, no better than Carlos," said a high French official, who is always present during the sessions. "You can try to manipulate him, but Verges is very dangerous."

Indeed, Verges is one of the most mysterious, most feared and most detested lawyers in France, if not the world.

Often called "the devil's advocate," he wears the title proudly. His cast of clients has included the "Butcher of Lyon," Klaus Barbie, and African dictators, Algerian revolutionaries, crooked French policemen and Palestinian terrorists.

The short, stocky lawyer with slicked-back black hair has represented, with what some consider to be unseemly delight, some of France's most unsavory characters. In nearly four decades of legal practice, he has seen 150 of his clients sentenced to death - but, he hastens to point out, not one has been executed. Of course, France no longer has a death penalty.

"A man is never all black or all white," Verges said, defending his decision to represent such notorious figures. "In the heart of the worst criminal there is always a secret garden. And in the heart of the most honest man, a nest of the most terrible reptiles."

Now Verges, 69, has a new case and a new public platform. Carlos the Jackal, the 45-year-old Venezuelan whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was arrested in Sudan in August and brought to France, amid great fanfare, to face terrorism charges covering nearly 20 years.

When Carlos first appeared in court, he appointed Verges as his attorney because, he told the judge, "he's a bigger terrorist than I am."

"What is he referring to?" the judge asked Verges.

"Your Honor, I think he may be referring to my ideas," the attorney replied.

Later, Verges told a reporter, "Carlos is an extremely courteous man. I think it was a tribute to the fact that the battle of ideas is as dangerous - no, not as dangerous, but as important - as that of bombs."

Carlos sealed his international reputation in 1975, when he kidnapped 11 oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries during a meeting in Vienna and killed three guards. He took the hostages to Algeria, releasing them unharmed after receiving $20 million in ransom.

It will be several years before Carlos faces a trial. Verges is launching a stiff legal challenge to Carlos' arrest and extradition. And until that is resolved, he said, Carlos is refusing to answer investigators' questions.

Verges and Carlos have a long, murky relationship. Although Verges maintains that the two first met in August, when Carlos was brought to France, they had been in contact, at least through intermediaries, since the mid-1980s.

That was when Verges took the case of two of Carlos' top associates: his girlfriend, Magdalena Kopp, a former German Red Army Faction member, and Bruno Breguet. During the pair's trial on weapons-possession charges, Carlos sent a letter to the French government threatening unspecified actions unless they were released.

Soon after the letter arrived, two bombs exploded in France, killing six people.

Kopp and Breguet, whom Verges called "soldiers in a noble cause," were convicted of terrorist acts in 1983 and sent to prison, where Kopp knitted sweaters for Verges. When Kopp was freed two years later, she and Carlos were married.

But Verges is the figure in the Carlos affair who most fascinates the French. Most shocking to them, he seems to like his clients and even admire them.

Verges describes Carlos, for example, as "a man of taste . . . who feels at home in a dinner jacket" and for whom "I have nothing but respect."

Without doubt, Verges enjoys his reputation as a villain. He titled the first volume of his recollections "The Shining Bastard." And he revels in the non-honorifics that the press bestows: The daily newspaper Liberation recently called him "a classic literary figure of treachery."

Verges says he selects cases primarily for their social and historical importance.

"I defended Mr. Barbie even though I once fought Nazism because I think the occupation of France, and the French collaboration, has many consequences, even today," he said.

But, he added, "I also accept cases that are not in the news, those that represent crimes of passion, because they also ask fundamental questions about mankind. It is my novelist reflex."

But Verges is so controversial because of his energetic advocacy for those clients whose goal is to undermine Western society.

"Of course, a lawyer must keep a certain distance from his cases," Verges said. "But he also must be passionate. You can't be a good lawyer without being passionate."

That passion has led to what Verges calls his "rupture defense," reserved primarily for terrorists. The central precept of that strategy is to ignore the facts of the case and instead challenge the authority of the court.

In the process, he says, he finds "the secret garden" in his clients and exploits it, becoming, in effect, a publicity man for his client. Even if he doesn't win many cases - and he doesn't - Verges considers it a victory if he can give his client's political views a public platform.

"As an attorney, you have to understand the client's reasons," Verges said. "A terrorist doesn't just plant bombs; he plants questions for society."

And Verges has deep respect for people committed to political causes.

"The person who comes from an upper-middle-class family, who could have become a lawyer or a journalist but instead decides to run in the streets, kill and risk being killed for a cause, poses a question to society," he added. "You can't punish him without understanding the problem. And that's my job."