René Audran

René Audran was a senior official of the French Ministry of Defence. He was assassinated on 25 January 1985 by the armed group Action directe in front of his residence at La Celle-Saint-Cloud.

Background
At the time of his death, René Audran had attained the rank of Engineer General of the Corps of Armament. He was the Director of International Affairs (DAI) at the General Delegation for Armament (DGA). He had been in particular involved in arms sales to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, which made some people suspect that Iran was involved in his assassination. His assassination occurred at the same time and by the same people as Georges Besse who had been involved in nuclear cooperation with Iraq as well.