Born in 1931, Croissant was the lawyer for the Red Army Faction (RAF) and as such was accused by prosecutor Rebmann of having “organized the operational reserve of West German terrorism from his cabinet”.

While on the run in France he was arrested in Paris on September 30, 1977: Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault were amongst those most vocal in the campaign against his imprisonment. In spite of vigorous protests and organized demonstrations in Germany, Italy and France, the Paris Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Croissant’s extradition on November 16, 1977.

Several years later, he returned to France and, with Vergès, attempted to create a “collective of European lawyers for political prisoners”, inspired by the Algerian model. On September 14, 1992, he was accused by German courts of “espionage on behalf of East German communists” based on information found in STASI archives, and condemned in March 1993 to a suspended sentence of twenty-one months.

Klaus Croissant died in 2002.