Nathalie Ménigon (born 28 February 1957 in

Enghien-les-Bains Enghien-les-Bains () is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the département of Val-d'Oise. Enghien-les-Bains is famous as a spa resort and a well-to-do suburb of Paris, developed in ...

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

committed while she was a member of the French revolutionary group Action directe. She was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 and freed in August 2008 after serving more than 20 years in prison.

Arrest and imprisonment

She was arrested, with her companions

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 ...

Joëlle Aubron Joëlle Aubron (26 June 1959 – 1 March 2006) was a militant in the French group Action directe (armed group), Action directe. Action directe involvement and arrests Arrested on 9 April 1982, she was sentenced to 4 years in prison for concea ...

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 18 February 1987 on a farm in Vitry-aux-Loges. She was convicted in 1989 for the 1986 assassination of

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 ...

, then-president of

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

, and of the 1985 assassination of

René Audran René Audran (1929 – Jan 25, 1985) was a senior official of the French Ministry of Defence who was responsible for managing the country's foreign arms sales. He is known for being assassinated on 25 January 1985 by the armed group Action directe ...

, a senior official at the French

French Ministry of Defence , native_name_a = , native_name_r = , type = Ministry , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , logo = Ministère des Armées.svg , logo_width = 150 , logo_caption = Official logot ...

. She was sentenced to life in prison."Nathalie Ménigon obtient une semi-liberté, appel du parquet"
''

L'Express ''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''. History ...

'', 10 May 2007 (source

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

). She married

on 29 June 1999 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 ...

Release from prison

She was imprisoned in the Bapaume Prison, located in

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 ...

, until August 2007. She was three times denied a suspended sentence for medical reasons, after suffering from

hemiplegia Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body ('' hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused by different medic ...

, depression, problems balancing, and spasms. In May 2007 she was transferred to a house arrest program. The conditions allowed her to work during the days, but she had to spend her nights in prison. This parole was required in order for her to eventually be conditionally released from prison. Her conditional release was effective 2 August 2008. While in prison she suffered from

, caused by two

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

s. She also engaged in self-harm in 2003, in protest of the jail conditions.

New Anticapitalist Party

In July 2008, she expressed interest in the

New Anticapitalist Party The New Anticapitalist Party (french: Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste , abbreviated NPA) is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements o ...

, started by

Olivier Besancenot Olivier Christophe Besancenot (; born 18 April 1974) is a French left-wing political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party (''Nouveau parti anticapitaliste'', NPA) from 2009 to 2011. He w ...

and the Revolutionary Communist League.Le Point - n°1868 - 3 July 2008

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menigon, Nathalie 1957 births Autonomism French assassins French female murderers People from Enghien-les-Bains People imprisoned on charges of terrorism Living people