French anarchist Aubron dead

Joelle Aubron, a leading member of the French left-wing anarchist group Action Directe which murdered the head of the Renault carmaker 20 years ago, died in Paris today of lung cancer, a support group said.

Aubron, who was 46, was released from a life jail sentence in 2004 following an operation for a brain tumour.

Her death was announced by Alain Pojolat, a member of a support group for imprisoned members of Action Directe. Three other members of the group are still serving life sentences.

Aubron was sentenced with Nathalie Menigon, Georges Cipriani and Jean-Marc Rouillan, in two trials in 1989 and 1994, for the killing of Georges Besse, head of the carmaker Renault, and of the arms engineer Rene Audran.

She said she never regretted what she described as an armed struggle motivated by anger.

The daughter of a middle-class family, she was first arrested in 1982 after weapons were found in a garage she rented, and served a prison term. She was freed in 1984 and married Regis Schleicher, another member of Action Directe, then in jail.

The group was founded in 1979 and dismantled in 1989.

During its existence members killed two police officers in Paris in 1983, and another in 1986.

It forged links with the German Red Army Faction and in 1985 murdered Audran and the following year George Besse.

In all it was responsible for some 80 acts of violence. Attempts on the lives of other prominent public figures failed.

Aubron and her three fellow activists were arrested in 1987.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_directe
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18322073%255E1702,00.html