France's Last Guillotine
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2017
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The last man to be executed by guillotine in France was a disabled Tunisian murderer, Hamida Djandoubi. He was beheaded on September 10th 1977 at the Baumettes prison in Marseille. Ashley Byrne has spoken to the daughter of lawyer, Emile Pollak, who defended Hamida Djandoubi and who was present at his execution. The death penalty was outlawed in France in 1981.
Photo: A man looks at a guillotine in an exhibition. Credit: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories. |
| 1:04.4 | And that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.3 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, |
| 1:09.4 | find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hello, you're listening to the Witness Podcast, History as told by the people who are there. |
| 1:17.0 | I'm Ashley Byrne and I'm taking you back to the late 1970s and the very last time that France used the guillotine ending a tradition dating back centuries. |
| 1:27.0 | On the 10th of September 1977 in the early hours of the morning, |
| 1:31.0 | a young disabled Tunisian man, Amida Jandubi, was led into a courtyard |
| 1:35.9 | at Beaumet prison in Marseille and decapitated for torturing and murdering his former |
| 1:41.3 | girlfriend. |
... |
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