From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jacques Vergès, born 5 March 1925 in Ubon Ratchathani, Siam (now called Thailand), is a French lawyer who has earned fame continually since the 1950s, first as an anticolonialist communist figure and then for defending a long string of well-known clients from anticolonialist Algerian militant Djamila Bouhired (his future wife) in 1957-1962 to former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan (2008). His clients have included both leftwing and rightwing terror ...