The Jackal is married to his lawyer, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre. Ms. Peyre has defended mostly radical leftists, including Khmer Rouge leaders, but she has also represented people accused of anti-Semitism and Zacarias Moussaoui, whom the US government accused of being a 9/11 plotter.
Sanchez is a converted Muslim and Ms. Coutant-Peyre was brought up Catholic. They met in 1982 when Coutant-Peyre was working for Jacques Verges, a lawyer who defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie. At the time, Mr. Verges was defending the Jackal’s first wife, Magdalena Kopp, who was sentenced for a planned bombing in Paris. Coutant-Peyre and Mr. Verges initially defended the Jackal, but the Jackal sacked Verges in 1997 and made Peyre his chief lawyer. In 2001 the two were married in a French prison. Peyre is his third wife.
