Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière
Jean-Louis Bruguière was born in Tours (France) in 1943. After obtaining a Master’s Degree in Public Law, in 1968 he successfully passed the national magistrates’ examination. In 1973 he was appointed in Evreux as an investigating judge, a position he left in 1976 to take up similar duties in Paris. In 1995 he was appointed First Vice President in charge of coordinating the anti-terrorist section in Paris.
After being in charge of serious crime investigations, from 1981, following the abolition of the State Security Court he was assigned to cases relating to terrorism: Euro-terrorism with Action Directe (connected to the Red Brigades and the German RAF), domestic terrorism (Basque and Corsican) and international terrorism originating in the Middle East (terror attacks perpetrated by the Palestinian organizations of the “Refusal Front” (Abu Nidal, PFLP, Carlos) or ordered by Iran (CSPPA in 1986, assassination of Shapour Bakhtiar).
He was also entrusted with the investigation into the attack against the DC10 belonging to the airline UTA following the Lockerbie bombing (implication of Libyan agents).
From 1994 onwards, he primarily dealt with all investigations relating to radical Islamism and in particular Al-Qaeda (hijacking of an Air France Airbus in 1994, attacks in 1995, dismantling of Al-
Qaeda cells, Pakistani-Afghan networks, Ressam-Millenium Bomber network; investigation into the attacks of 11 September 2001; 2002 Djerba bombing; 2002 Karachi bomb attack in which several French employees of DCN were killed; Chechen networks linked with the networks of Abu Mussab al- Zarkawi; and more recently the SGPC networks which subsequently became “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”). He also took charge of investigations into separatist organisations operating abroad (IRA, PKK and LTTE).
From 1995 and until May 2007 he led and coordinated the National Judicial Anti-Terrorist Division, which is made up of 8 specialized investigative magistrates with national jurisdiction.
He has also exercised other duties. He is an expert advisor on domestic security services to the Council of Europe, the Commission of the European Union as well as the United Nations (UNODC). In addition, he has also advised several Governments states on counter-terrorism, and participates in numerous conferences in France and abroad. Moreover, in November 2009 he published a book of memoirs and reflections on thirty years spent fighting major crime and terrorism, published by Robert Laffont and entitled “Ce que je n’ai pas pu dire” (“What I couldn’t say”).
In 2008 he was appointed by European Union as an “Eminent European Person” to the United-States to represent Europe to the US on financing Terrorism issue, in the framework of the “Terrorism Finance Tracking Programme/SWIFT”, which was set up by President Bush in the aftermath of 11 September and which is implemented by the Treasury and with agencies of the US Intelligence community. He is currently concerned by the follow up study of an EU equivalent TFTP project.
In 2010, he joined the Chertoff Group in Washington, as a member of its Advisory Board.
Moreover, he advises and makes conferences to the DOD. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission and of the World Economic Forum.
Mr. Jean-Louis Bruguière is an Officer of the Legion of Honour and a Commander of the French National Merit. He has also been awarded the Silver Medal of the Spanish Guardia Civil and was the recipient of the Spanish Dialogo prize in 2007.
