Paul Barril, former gendarme turned mercenary, dies aged 80
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Kassataya
Paul Barril, a former gendarmerie officer who became a mercenary and a figure in Françafrique, died on Tuesday evening aged 80. The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group confirmed his death, reported by Le Monde, which recounts, among other things, his private security work for African heads of state.
Paul Barril, a former Élysée Palace gendarme who became a mercenary and a figure in the networks of Françafrique, died on Tuesday evening aged 80, the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) said on Wednesday, Le Monde reports, as cited by Kassataya.
Born in 1946 in Vinay, in the Isère department, Barril graduated top of his class from the National Gendarmerie Officers’ School in 1975. He was subsequently posted to Berlin, where he was among those guarding Rudolf Hess, the former Nazi leader imprisoned in Spandau after being sentenced to life imprisonment by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Barril had devised a plan to help him escape, but later abandoned it.
In the mid-1990s, he provided private security for several African heads of state. He also published numerous autobiographies and claimed to keep documents in a briefcase that could “bring down the Republic”. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease since the early 2010s, he was nicknamed “One lie a day” by his detractors, according to Le Monde.
Summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence tools, under AFREEQUE’s editorial responsibility.
