Pierre Carette

Pierre Carette (born December 16, 1952 in Charleroi) was the leader of the Belgian extreme-left terrorist group Communist Combatant Cells or CCC. Although Carette was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment for terrorist attacks, he was released in 2003. However, he was arrested again on June 5, 2008 because of parole violations.

Life and work

Pierre Carette became politically active when establishing a committee striving for the release of captured members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany. Before that, he had already distributed printwork calling for armed struggle against capitalism, including translation of RAF-pamphlets. In 1982, he published a magazine called "Subversion" for a while. Shortly afterwards, he was a driving force for the establishment of the CCC. Starting in October 1984, this group carried out a series of attacks on political and military targets, until the apprehension of Carette and three other members in a fastfood restaurant in Namur on December 16, 1985.

The CCC-members were brought to trial in 1988. In October 1988, Carette was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment [cite news|title= [http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/DetailAbo.aspx?artikelId=GOO4RL1M Engelen des doods; "CCC-kopstukken blikken terug op hun aanslagen"; documentaire] |publisher=De Standaard|date=March 25, 2004 Languageicon|nl|Dutch] , mainly because of an attack on the building of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (VBO) in Brussels on May 1, 1985, which killed two firemencite news|title= [http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/DetailAbo.aspx?artikelId=DST26022003_007 CCC'er Carette blijft zijn politieke idealen trouw; "CCC is niet meer, maar ik strijd voort"] |publisher=De Standaard|date=Februari 26, 2003 Languageicon|nl|Dutch] .

On February 23, 2003, Carette was the last CCC-member to be released from prison. In October 2002, he had given an interview to journalists of the VRT television program "Ter Zake" without permission. In September 2003, he confronted Wilfried Martens on the television program "Nachtwacht" [cite news|title= [http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/DetailAbo.aspx?artikelId=DST20092003_073 Confrontatie Carette-Martens] |publisher=De Standaard|date=September 20, 2003 Languageicon|nl|Dutch] . Martens was the prime minister of Belgium at the time of the attacks, and even received police protection against the CCC. Carette stated that he still has the same convictions and that his struggle continues.

Pierre Carette was arrested again on june 5, 2008, after the police found out he had re-established contacts with other CCC-members, something that was strictly prohibited, but 6 days later it was decided he would not go to prison as it couldn't be proved the contact was anything but pacifist. " [cite news|title=http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/binnenland/080605_CCC] |publisher=VRT|date=June 5, 2008 Languageicon|nl|Dutch]

Footnotes