Jean-Pierre Cherid facts for kids

Jean-Pierre Cherid was born on November 20, 1940, in Algiers. He passed away on March 19, 1984, in Biarritz, France. He was a French activist with very strong political beliefs, sometimes called "far-right." He also worked as a mercenary, which means he fought for money.

Cherid was once a French paratrooper, a soldier trained to jump from planes. He joined a group called the Organisation armée secrète (OAS) during the Algerian War (1954–1962). This war was fought between France and Algerian independence groups.

Activities in Spain

After the Algerian War, Cherid went to Spain in 1976. There, he was hired by Spanish government agencies to take part in a violent event called the Montejurra massacre. This event was against a left-wing political group known as the Carlist Party.

Fighting ETA

Cherid continued to work with members of Spanish intelligence services and security forces. These groups were involved in a secret and illegal fight against ETA. ETA was a group that wanted the Basque Country to be independent from Spain. This secret fight took place in the French Basque Country.

Cherid was involved in several violent acts against ETA members:

• In 1978, he took part in the killing of Argala, an ETA member.
• In 1979, he tried to kill another ETA activist named Txomin in Biarritz, but he was not successful.
• A few months later, his group killed an ETA activist named Enrique Álvarez, known as "Korta," in Bayonne.
• On December 31, 1980, Cherid killed an ETA member named José Martín Sagardía in Biarritz.

Later Operations and Death

Even when the Spanish government changed in 1982, Cherid continued to work with secret groups fighting ETA. These groups were later known as the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL).

Cherid died on March 19, 1984. He was handling explosives that were meant to be used in an attempt to kill ETA's leaders. The explosives went off, causing an explosion that killed him. After his death, an authorization document from the Guardia Civil (a Spanish police force) was found among his belongings.

After His Death

In 1996, during a special meeting of the Spanish Parliament, it was discussed that Cherid's family asked for a pension from the Spanish Ministry of Interior. A senator named Álvaro Martínez Sevilla claimed that a former Interior Minister, José Barrionuevo, had ordered that Cherid's wife receive money for life. However, the Minister's office said this was not true.

In 2008, Cherid was also accused of being involved in the disappearance of an ETA activist named Pertur in 1976. It was said that Cherid managed a house outside Barcelona where kidnapped people were tortured for Spanish intelligence services.

See also

In Spanish: Jean-Pierre Cherid para niños