[JURIST] The convicted assassin and terrorist known popularly as "Carlos the Jackal" [BBC profile; Wikipedia profile] - Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez - may soon be forced to stand trial in France [JURIST news archive] for his alleged participation in four deadly terror bombings in 1982 and 1983, according to a French judicial official speaking on condition of anonymity Friday. Jean-Louis Bruguiere [BBC profile], France's top anti-terror judge, reportedly plans to bring the charges against Sanchez, whom he has tracked for decades. Sanchez has been implicated for his role in deadly bombings, hostage takings, and assassinations in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, and he is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informer in 1975. AP has more.

In July 2006, the appeals chamber of the European Court of Human Rights [official website] in Strasbourg rejected an appeal [JURIST report] from Sanchez claiming that the eight years he spent in solitary confinement in a French prison was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text]. The appeals chamber ruled [JURIST report] that Sanchez' solitary confinement was not inhumane or otherwise violative of his rights.