Defending “Terrorists” in France of 1935: The Lawyer of the “Croatian Oustachis”

This paper seeks to study the defense strategies adopted for the “Croatian terrorists” judged in 1935 for having collaborated in the Marseille assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia and Minister Louis Barthou. The memoirs written by their attorney after having been expelled by court order during the trial are revealing of an exceptional and emblematic case. In stressing on the activist background of an atypical attorney, these sources enlighten the tensions spurred by the legal repression of “political terrorism” in Europe during the 1930s.