Former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who died in March, was an ardent supporter of the man who calls himself a "professional revolutionary" but it is not known whether he provided him with financial backing.

Ramirez, dressed in a white shirt and black suit, has denied any specific involvement in four bombings in 1982 and 1983 on a Paris street, two trains and a Marseille train station that wounded nearly 200 people and killed t 11 dead.

Prosecutors at his 2011 trial said the bombings were Ramirez's answer to the police seizure of two of his gang, including his lover.