The writer Gilles Perrault, who had weighed heavily in the 1970s in favor of the abolition of the death penalty by publishing Le pull-over rouge, died at 92, we learned Thursday from his entourage family. “I can confirm to you that he died at the age of 92 last night on August 3 from cardiac arrest in the English Channel,” his family told AFP, confirming information from Ouest-France. “Not just a terrific storyteller. But also a committed man, “said journalist Edwy Plenel in a message on Twitter on Thursday evening.
Jacques Peyroles, his real name, had started a career as a lawyer, before branching off into journalism and then literature. Under his pseudonym, he notably signed in 1969 a successful spy novel, Le Dossier 51, adapted into a film with Michel Deville.
“Gilles Perrault’s books are markers for my generation. There is a before and after “Our friend the king” in Hassan II’s view of Morocco,” said Pierre Haski, journalist and president of Reporters Without Borders.
In 1978, the publication of the investigative book Le Pull-over rouge, which fueled doubts about the guilt of Christian Ranucci, guillotined two years earlier for the murder of a little girl, gave rise to a lively controversy, and to his conviction for defamation.
The death penalty was abolished in France in 1981, but requests for a review of the trial never succeeded. “A search for review is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” the writer told AFP in 2006, still hoping one day to see the case reviewed.
Gilles Perrault is also the author of the resounding Our friend the king published in 1990 and which made a damning assessment of 30 years of the reign of Hassan II. The book also questions the complacency of certain French elites towards him.
Perrault had prefaced in 2014 a book very critical of the current king of Morocco, son of Hassan II, written by a former Moroccan journalist for AFP Omar Brouksy. Entitled Mohammed VI behind the masks, it was subtitled “the son of our friend” in reference to Gilles Perrault’s book.
