Roger Auque is one of the most popular and richest French journalist who was born on January 11, 1956 in Roubaix, Hauts-de-France, France. After being accused of spying for the Israelis, Auque was taken into custody by Hezbollah on January 1987. Hezbollah held Auque as one of the first Western journalists, and espionage agents, during the war. Auque was detained with Jean-Louis Normandin (another French journalist) of Antenne 2 TV. Normadin, in a 2014 interview with Le Parisien, recalled their captivity. “We met in a trunk of a car near Beirut. Later we were freed together on the same night… He was a charmer… Always keep smiling… [with] sincerity. enthusiasm. energy.” After being given a Bible by one of his captors, Auque became a Catholic devout Catholic. After negotiations with Charles Pasqua, the Interior Minister of France and Jacques Chirac, Normandin were released in November 1987.
Roger Auque was sent to Rome as a reporter for RTL following his release. He also covered stories in the Middle East, Africa, and Yugoslavia. He authored pieces on Israeli affairs for several French magazines, including Le Figaro Magazine, Paris Match, and VSD. He covered the Iraq War from Baghdad for Yediot Aharonot using the pen name, Pierre Baudry (Baudry is his mother’s maiden name). He worked in Baghdad until 2006 when he returned to Beirut for two years.
In 2008, Auque returned to France to pursue politics and diplomacy. He was elected a Paris municipal councilor in 2008 as a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Auque served as the French Ambassador to Eritrea from 2009 to 2012. He became friends with the Israeli Ambassador to Eritrea, Guy Feldman, during his tenure.
Auque wrote two books, including one that details his time in captivity by Hezbollah. Ronen Bergman, an Israeli journalist who documented Auque’s captivity by Hezbollah in 1987, wrote a chapter in his book The Secret War With Iran. The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against The World’s Most Dangerous Threatened Terrorist Power.
Auque started his career in journalism as a freelance journalist during the Lebanese Civil War of the 1980s. During the war, he worked closely with a member of Lebanon’s Phalange party. He became close friends with Uri Lubrani (the Israeli governor and coordinator of the South Lebanon security belt, 1983-2000).
His daughter Maréchal-Le Pen was a member of the National Front party. She was born in 1989, to Yann le Penn, daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, and was raised within Yann’s marriage to Samuel Maréchal, a fact only revealed publicly in 2013 in a book by Christine Clerc titled Les Conquérantes. In 2012, Maréchal-Le Pen was elected France’s youngest MP ever. Marion Maréchal sued French weekly newsmagazine L’Express for a “serious invasion of her privacy,” and won her case in April 2015.
