r, demanding the release of Kopp and Breguet within thirty days and their safe passage out of France. It contained no threats of any kind ending simply with, "We hope that this affair will end soon and in a happy way." It was signed, "Carlos - Organisation of Arab armed struggle - Arm of the Arab Revolution" and bore a sample of Carlos's thumbprints. The letter was given to Christa-Margot Froelich, a woman that Weinrich had recruited from the German Revolutionary Cells, who took it from Budapest to the French Embassy in The Hague where it was passed on to Ambassador Jurgensen with a covering letter instructing him to take it to Deffere. Although both Carlos and Deffere had wanted the letter kept a secret, it's contents were later printed in a Paris newspaper angering both parties. Against his advisors wishes, Deffere began negotiations with Carlos through his envoy Jacques Verges, a prominent defence attorney who had a history as a communist revolutionary. Verges lobbied the French government for the release of the prisoners on several occasions but was turned down. As the trial of Kopp and Breguet approached, the judge in charge of the proceedings dropped the charge of attempted murder and ordered the pair to stand trial on April 15 in a magistrate's court where they would receive lighter sentences. Capitole after the bombing (Follain)While the legal machinations continued, the thirty-day deadline that Carlos had set was almost up with no indication that the French authorities would accede to his requests. Although his letter did not contain any direct threats, the SDECE believed that a reprisal was inevitable. They did not have to wait long. On March 15, ten days before the deadline, five kilos of explosives were detonated in the French Cultural Centre in Beirut wounding five people. Four days after the deadline had passed a bomb ripped apart a section of the Capitole, the Trans Europe express train that runs between Paris ...
