Nathalie Ménigon was a member of Action Directe, an armed group that operated in France from 1979 and was banned by the government in 1982. She was convicted, with three co-defendants, of two murders: that of René Audran in January 1985 and that of Georges Besse in November 1986. She received life imprisonment in 1989 and again in 1994. In August 2008, after more than two decades in prison in France, she was released on conditional release under conditions set by a Paris court.
She was 29 in December 1986, when police in France were circulating wanted posters of her and a second woman, Joëlle Aubron, then 27, in connection with the Besse case; she was aged 51 at her release in 2008, which places her birth in about 1957. Witness descriptions at that stage were too vague for a firm identification.
Action Directe had emerged in 1979 and was banned in 1982. It carried out more than 80 attacks, and about 20 of its members were arrested in 1986 and 1987.
René Audran was 56. He died in January 1985 in Celle-Saint-Cloud, outside Paris. Within about an hour, an anonymous caller told a news agency that Action Directe was responsible.
Georges Besse was 58. He died in Paris in November 1986. The authorities blamed Action Directe. The Interior Minister of the time offered a reward, and about 80,000 wanted posters with photographs of Ménigon and Aubron were distributed.
In February 1987 Ménigon was arrested together with three other leaders of Action Directe: Joëlle Aubron, Jean-Marc Rouillan and Georges Cipriani.
Ménigon was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989 and again in 1994, for the deaths of Georges Besse and René Audran. She was convicted together with three co-defendants. The court's formal name and the exact wording of the verdicts are not on record.
On August 2, 2007 she was moved to a prison in southwestern France under a semi-liberty regime, after a period in a prison in northern France. For about a year she spent nights in prison and worked in garden maintenance by day; in the final two months she spent only weekends in prison and lived and worked on a farm in the region during the week.
On July 17, 2008 a sentence enforcement court in Paris granted her conditional release, and the prosecutors did not oppose it. She left prison in southwestern France on Saturday, August 2, 2008, aged 51, and declined to comment.
The court set conditions for five years. She had to report any departure from the department where she was to live. Changes of job or residence, and any absence of more than 15 days, required prior approval from the Paris judge responsible for her case. She was also barred from discussing the crimes publicly, in the media or in writing.
The conditions were set to run for five years from August 2008.
The French government banned Action Directe in 1982. Twenty of its members were arrested in 1986 and 1987, and 18 members were convicted of criminal conspiracy in 1988.
Witness descriptions in December 1986 were too vague to identify anyone. Killings attributed to the group beyond these two are not part of her convictions.
1979: Action Directe emerges.
1982: The French government bans the group.
January 1985: René Audran dies in Celle-Saint-Cloud.
November 1986: Georges Besse dies in Paris.
December 1986: Wanted posters of Ménigon and Joëlle Aubron are distributed.
February 1987: Ménigon and three co-defendants are arrested.
1989: Life imprisonment.
1994: Life imprisonment.
August 2, 2007: Moved to semi-liberty.
July 17, 2008: Conditional release granted by a Paris sentence enforcement court.
August 2, 2008: Released, with conditions for five years.