MONTREAL -- Yves Langlois, the last of five Front de Liberation du Quebec terrorists who lived in self-imposed exile in France, returns to Canada today to face charges in the 1970 kidnapping of British diplomat James Cross.
James Cross.
Langlois was booked on an Air Canada flight from Paris scheduled to land at Montreal's Mirabel airport at 1:15 a.m. EDT, Montreal police Lt. Det. Real Mailhot said.
Mailhot, assisted by two other Montreal sergeant detectives, will read Langlois a warrant issued for his arrest and then escort the former FLQ terrorist to police headquarters for questioning.
Langlois, alias Pierre Seguin, faces four charges -- conspiracy, kidnapping, extortion and forcible detension -- for his role in the Cross abduction, Mailhot said. Two counts of assault have been dropped, he added.
Langlois, 34, who has lived in voluntary exile for more than 11 years, is considered the last of the exiled terrorists to return to Quebec to stand trial for the Cross abduction more than a decade ago.
He is believed to have lived in Paris since 1974, when along with four accomplices he moved to France from Cuba. The abductors had been granted safe passage to Cuba for the safe release of Cross after 59 days in captivity.
The Oct. 5, 1970 kidnapping set off a chain of terrorist acts which included the kidnap-murder of then Quebec labor minister Pierre Laporte.
The Canadian government responded with the War Measures Act, which suspended some civil liberties and resulted in the arrest of hundreds of Quebecers.
In 1979, Jacques and Louise Cossette-Trudel became the first of the exiled terrorists to voluntarily return to Canada. They have completed a sentence of two years less one day for their role in the Cross kidnapping.
Louise's brother, Jacques Lanctot, returned a year later and was sentenced to three years in prison. Earlier this year, Marc Carbonneau was given a 20-month jail term and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.
School teacher Niger Barry Hamer, a long-suspected sixth accomplice who stayed in Canada, was sentenced last spring to one year in jail.
