Joëlle Aubron (26 June 1959 – 1 March 2006) was a militant in the French group Action directe.

Action directe involvement and arrests

Arrested on 9 April 1982, she was sentenced to 4 years in prison for concealment and possession of arms. In 1983, she married Régis Schleicher, another member of Action directe, whom she later divorced. Granted a remission of sentence following her marriage, she was released on 24 January 1984. She began running an anarchist bookshop, then went underground in 1985, when she joined the arm of Action directe that allied itself with the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

. She participated in several attacks organized by Action directe, including the assassinations of General René Audran on 25 January 1985 and

Georges Besse Georges Besse (25 December 1927 – 17 November 1986) was a French businessman who led several large state-controlled French companies. He was assassinated outside his Paris home by the terrorist group Action directe. At the time of his death he ...

on 19 November 1986. Joëlle Aubron, along with

Nathalie Ménigon Nathalie Ménigon (born 28 February 1957 in Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise), was convicted for acts of terrorism committed while she was a member of the French revolutionary group Action directe. She was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 and freed ...

, is considered to be directly responsible for these two assassinations, though their respective roles have not been determined. Arrested with her comrades

Jean-Marc Rouillan ''Action Directe'' (; AD, "direct action") was a French far-left militant group which committed a assassination campaign, series of assassinations and violent attacks in France between 1979 and 1987. Members of Action directe considered thems ...

and

Georges Cipriani Georges Cipriani (born 12 April 1950) is a former militant of the group Action directe. Early life, work and involvement with AD He was born in Tunis to a working-class family, and later immigrated to France. In the late 1960s, he worked as a mil ...

on 21 February 1987 on a farm in Vitry-aux-Loges (

Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.

), she was sentenced in 1989 and 1994 to life in prison, with a minimum of 18 years. She was imprisoned at the

Fleury-Mérogis Prison Fleury-Mérogis Prison (''Maison d'arrêt de Fleury-Mérogis'') is a prison in France, located in the town of Fleury-Mérogis, in the southern suburbs of Paris. With more than 4,100 prisoners, it is the largest prison in France. It is operated b ...

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Bapaume Bapaume (original Dutch name Batpalmen) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. The inhabitants of this commune are known as ''Bapalmois'' or ''Bapalmoises''. Geography Bapaume is a farmi ...

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

Release

After undergoing operations for a brain tumour, she was released on 16 June 2004 and her sentence suspended by the law of 4 March 2002 concerning the rights of patients.

Documentary

In 2005, she appeared in the documentary '' Ni vieux, ni traîtres'', directed by

Pierre Carles Pierre Carles (born April 2, 1958) is a French documentarist, who has often been compared to Michael Moore for his use of the documentary form to denounce mainstream media, which he accuses of having conflicts of interest. Filmography * ''Juppé, ...

and Georges Minangoy.

Death

Joëlle Aubron died on 1 March 2006, at the age of 46, from a cancer that had metastasized towards her brain.

References

External links

Video of Joëlle Aubron

Interview of Joëlle Aubron on Saturday, 28 August 2004 (''Libération'')

Quand le militantisme fait le choix des armes : les femmes d'action directe et les médias
par Fanny Bugnon {{DEFAULTSORT:Aubron, Joelle 1959 births 2006 deaths Autonomism French anarchists People from Neuilly-sur-Seine People imprisoned on charges of terrorism