Catching a Dog of War

Paris

France’s most notorious mercenary, Bob Denard, was found guilty this week of launching a 1995 coup in the Comoros Islands. Denard and his accomplices claimed to be acting with the knowledge of the French government when they installed opposition leaders in the former French colony, but the court rejected that defense. One of the European mercenaries known as the Dogs of War, Denard has been involved in at least four coups in the Comoros, as well as several African wars during the 1960s and 1970s. He won’t serve time, though. The court suspended his five-year prison sentence because Denard, 76, suffers from Alzheimer’s.