Self-styled revolutionary 'Carlos the Jackal' has returned to court in Paris to appeal against his life sentence for deadly attacks in France in the 1980s, reports BBC News.
The Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, has always denied playing any role in the bomb attacks that killed 11 people. Ramirez, who is also serving a life sentence for a triple murder in 1975, asked to be given a new lawyer.
The 63-year-old was captured by French special forces in Sudan in 1994.
By that time he had earned global notoriety as a mastermind of deadly bomb attacks, assassinations and hostage-takings.
Ramirez began Monday's hearing by saying he had decided to drop his lawyers and asking for a court-appointed defence team. "I have forbidden my lawyers from coming to defend me," he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
The Venezuelan authorities, he argued, had refused to cover his court costs.
Ramirez is now expected to argue that the evidence that led to his conviction in 2011 was fundamentally unreliable.
Prosecutors had struggled to secure a conviction until the release of secret files from East Germany's notorious secret police, the Stasi.
During his trial in 2011, Ramirez described himself as a "man of combat" and a "professional revolutionary".
"I am a living archive. Most of the people of my level are dead."
He also read a text in memory of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who is known to have funded anti-Western attacks.
Read more of this report from BBC News.