Antoine Argoud

Who was Antoine Argoud?

Antoine Argoud was a French Army officer specializing in counter-insurgency during the Algerian War of Independence. Argoud's opposition to Algerian independence from France resulted in his joining of the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète and support for its use of violence in opposition to this policy.

Argoud was twice placed on trial and convicted of attempting to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle. Following the second trial Argoud was sentenced to life imprisonment, but released as part of a general amnesty in 1968.

In 1963, when Antoine Argoud was hiding out in Munich after the failed August 22, 1962 assassination attempt on de Gaulle, he was kidnapped by French secret police CRS agents and smuggled to France à la Eichmann, where he was interrogated. His revelation allowed the secret service to arrest Bastien-Thiry and other assassins.