Pierre Carette (born 21 September 1952 in

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

) was the leader of the Belgian extreme-left terrorist group

Communist Combatant Cells Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC; Communist Combatant Cells, also known as Fighting Communist Cells) was a Communist Belgian urban guerrilla organization. The cells were active for less than two years in the mid-1980s; primarily engaged in ...

or CCC. Although Carette was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment for

terrorist attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terrori ...

, he was released in 2003. However, he was briefly arrested again on 5 June 2008 because of a

parole violation Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

, but was released by the court on 18 June.

Life and work

Pierre Carette became politically active when establishing a committee striving for the release of captured members of 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 ...

(RAF) in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Before that, he had already distributed documents calling for armed struggle against capitalism, including translation of

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

-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 (but not people), until the apprehension of Carette and three other members in a fastfood restaurant in

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

on 16 December 1985. The CCC-members were brought to trial in 1988. In October 1988, Carette was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, mainly because of an attack on the building of the

Federation of Belgian Enterprises The Federation of Enterprises in Belgium ( nl, Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen, VBO, french: Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique, FEB) is the only Belgian non-profit organization representing companies in all three regions of Belgium. It ...

(VBO) in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 1 May 1985, when two

Firefighters A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

were killed in spite of a warning. On 23 February 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 Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens (; 19 April 1936 – 9 October 2013) was a Belgian politician who served as prime minister of Belgium from 1979 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1992. A member of the Flemish Christian People's Party, during his premiership ...

on the television program "Nachtwacht".

Martens A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on ...

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 5 June 2008, after police arrested a number of Belgians with ties to the

Political-Military Communist Party The Partito Comunista Politico-Militare (Political-Military Communist Party) (PCPM) is an Italian terrorist organization which came to light in 2007, and is linked to the New Red Brigades. 15 members of the PCPM were arrested in a February 2007 rai ...

, which had been plotting terror attacks in Italy. Some of those arrested had been CCC-members, and it was found that he had re-established contact with them, which had been prohibited by his parole conditions. However, as his parole conditions had been modified to allow him to have contact with his CCC associates in a peaceful context, and the police had not bugged his telephone calls with Bertrand Sassoye, there was no way to prove that his contact with Sassoye had been other than peaceful.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carette, Pierre 1952 births Living people Belgian people convicted of murder Belgian communists People convicted of murder by Belgium People imprisoned on charges of terrorism Belgian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Belgium People paroled from life sentence Politicians from Charleroi 20th-century Belgian criminals 1985 murders in Belgium