‘I’m a Simple Person . . . a Family Man,’ Jailed Carlos Protests

Carlos the Jackal says he’s just a family man suffering “moral assassination” in captivity, a newspaper said Tuesday in a report that prompted an investigation of how it got the imprisoned terrorist’s comments.

Carlos, a native Venezuelan whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also denied he is an alcoholic or planned to have liposuction to remove stomach fat, the French newspaper InfoMatin said.

“Today I want to testify, because I can’t stay like this without reacting to everything that is being said of me,” Carlos was quoted as saying from his isolation cell at La Sante prison in Paris.

Prison officials, apparently viewing the report as a breach of security, said they are investigating how the paper got Carlos’ comments.

InfoMatin told other news organizations it did not interview Carlos but obtained his comments “indirectly.” Prison guards are forbidden to act as intermediaries for such things, French officials said. Carlos’ lawyers denied involvement.

It would be Carlos’ first public comments since he was captured in Sudan and brought to France two weeks ago to stand trial in a string of bombings and killings in the 1970s and ‘80s.

In the newspaper account, the 44-year-old Carlos portrays himself as misunderstood.

“Why are they trying to pass me off as an alcoholic?” he was quoted as saying. “All of that is false. . . .

“I’m a simple person. I’m above all a family man. My wife and my daughter live as normally as anyone in Venezuela, with my family.”

Carlos said he was caught after being “betrayed by friendly leaders who had received me very generously,” an apparent reference to the Sudanese. “But now that they’ve neutralized me, instead of assassinating me physically, they are proceeding with a moral assassination.”