Hamida Djandoubi
Who was Hamida Djandoubi?
The last person executed by guillotine in France, convicted of torture and murder in 1977.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Hamida Djandoubi (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Hamida Djandoubi was born on September 22, 1949, in Tunis, Tunisia. He later moved to France and settled in the Marseille area, where he worked as an agricultural laborer. In 1971, he lost part of one of his legs in a serious workplace accident, which significantly impacted his life and job opportunities. After this injury, he turned to crime and began exploiting vulnerable women through forced prostitution.
Djandoubi became involved with Élisabeth Bousquet, a young French woman born in 1955. He forced her into prostitution and abused her repeatedly. In July 1974, after Bousquet reported his actions to the police, Djandoubi kidnapped her in retaliation. For several hours, he tortured her with extreme cruelty, with help from two other young women he controlled. He then killed Bousquet, and her body was found in a field near Marseille. She was 21 years old at the time of her death.
Djandoubi was arrested, tried, and convicted by the Cour d'assises des Bouches-du-Rhône in February 1977. The evidence against him was strong, and he was found guilty of kidnapping, torture, rape, and premeditated murder. The prosecutor called for the death penalty because of the crime's extreme cruelty. The jury and judge agreed, and Djandoubi was sentenced to death by guillotine. His request for presidential clemency was denied by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
On September 10, 1977, Hamida Djandoubi was executed by guillotine at the Penitentiary Center of Marseille at about 4:40 a.m. The execution was carried out by Marcel Chevalier. Djandoubi was 27 years old at the time. This execution marked the last time the guillotine was used in a judicial execution in France, or anywhere in the Western world. France abolished the death penalty four years later, in October 1981, under President François Mitterrand, making Djandoubi the last person legally executed in France.
Before Fame
Hamida Djandoubi, born in Tunis in 1949 during the last years of French rule in Tunisia, grew up in a North African society experiencing significant political and social changes. Like many men of his generation in Tunisia, he moved to France seeking better economic opportunities. He settled in the Marseille area, a city with a large North African immigrant population, and worked in agriculture.
His early life in France involved the challenging conditions many immigrant workers faced at the time. In 1971, a workplace accident led to a partial leg amputation, ending his ability to continue agricultural work and marking a shift towards criminal behavior. While details of his psychological development are largely lacking, between his accident and his 1974 arrest, he exerted coercive control over several women, a pattern that led to murder.
Key Achievements
- Became the last person executed by guillotine in France, on 10 September 1977
- Was the last person to be lawfully executed by beheading anywhere in the Western world
- His case and execution occurred in the immediate period preceding France's abolition of capital punishment, making it a landmark moment in French legal history
- Convicted of the kidnapping, torture, rape, and premeditated murder of Élisabeth Bousquet following a 1977 trial in Marseille
Did You Know?
- 01.Djandoubi's execution on 10 September 1977 was the last use of the guillotine for a judicial execution in the entire Western world, not merely in France.
- 02.The guillotine used for his execution was operated by Marcel Chevalier, who held the official title of executioner of France and who would have no further executions to carry out before the abolition of capital punishment in 1981.
- 03.His victim, Élisabeth Bousquet, had specifically gone to the police to report Djandoubi's prostitution operation before he abducted and killed her, making her murder a direct act of lethal retaliation against a witness.
- 04.France abolished the death penalty on 9 October 1981 under the Badinter Law, meaning only four years separated Djandoubi's execution from the formal end of capital punishment in the country.
- 05.Djandoubi was 27 years old at the time of his execution and had been born in the same year Tunisia was still under French protectorate rule, a biographical irony given that he was executed under French law.