Leader of Failed Comoros Coup Jailed in Paris

Veteran French mercenary Bob Denard, whose latest coup attempt in the Comoro Islands was crushed by French troops, was flown home to a French jail Saturday, his lawyer said.

Escorted by French gendarmes, he landed at Villacoublay air base outside Paris at dawn aboard an air force C-160 transport plane.

Lawyer Daniel Soulez-Lariviere said investigating magistrate Chantal Perdrix ordered Denard jailed at a Paris prison for failing to inform her that he was leaving France as he was obliged to under the terms of an earlier suspended prison sentence.

Perdrix had issued an international arrest warrant for the 66-year-old soldier of fortune after he sneaked out of France to make his latest bid for power in the former French colony he once ruled as a fiefdom.

Denard surrendered Thursday following a weeklong coup.

Prime Minister Caabi el Yachroutou is serving as president while President Said Mohamed Djohar--held by rebels for a week--rests on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.