Better than the Firing Squad

Take that, and that. If all this will not do, I'll drown you in the malmsey butt within.

-- Richard III

In the square, oak-paneled courtroom in Paris' ornate Palais de Justice, the light from four wrought-iron chandeliers set shadows flickering across the defendant's face. A fleshy six-footer with rimless glasses and a bushy black pompadour, he sat impassively as five judges discussed his crimes. Jean-Marie Curutchet, 33, former paratroop captain in the French army and a top terrorist of the Secret Army Organization, stood indicted on 50 counts ranging from desertion through plastic bombings and machine-gunning of police stations. But grisliest of all was a crime for which he could not be tried: in 1957 Curutchet was responsible for the deaths of 41 Algerian rebel suspects in the village of Ain-Isser. The mode of execution was worthy of Shakespeare's Richard III: *they were stuffed overnight in wine storage rooms and allowed to suffocate.

Feeling Heat. Curutchet beat that rap in a court-martial whitewash during the Algerian war, but the Paris tribunal had plenty of evidence pointing to assorted other assassinations as he came to trial last week. The prosecutor droned out the dreary list, explaining that in

September 1961 Curutchet deserted to join the underground S.A.O. network in France and soon rose to become one of the leaders. By the fall of 1962, the French security forces had smashed the S.A.O. network in France and Curutchet had taken refuge abroad, living in Switzerland, West Germany and Italy, where Paris' extradition efforts came to nought. Like bloodhounds, the French security forces kept on the heels of their prey. In February 1963, they got their hands on Curutchet's old S.A.O. boss, ex-Colonel Antoine Ar-goud, beat him to a pulp and delivered him tied like a rib roast, for the trial and conviction that earned him a life sentence.

Feeling the heat, Curutchet made what he thought was a deal with his pursuers last November. He agreed to go from Rome to far-off Uruguay, where he would presumably be harmless, in return for a French passport and an all-expenses-paid trip for himself and his family. But barely had his Alitalia jet touched down in Dakar, in ardently Gaullist Senegal, than a detachment of gendarmes boarded the plane, grabbed Curutchet and dragged him off. Within 24 hours Curutchet was behind bars in Paris, and last week the judges filed out to ponder the evidence. It took them three hours to find Curutchet guilty and to decide on life imprisonment. The terrorist's wife, having feared death by firing squad, wept with joy.

*Malmsey butt: a cask of sweet aromatic wine.

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