29 Facts About Juan Branco

Juan Branco then worked on the 2012 presidential election campaign of Socialist Party's candidate, Francois Hollande.

Juan Branco has courted controversy for his involvement with the Russian performance artist Petr Pavlensky in the Griveaux affair in 2020.

Juan Branco was born in 1989 in Estepona, near Malaga, one of the four children of psychoanalyst Dolores Lopez and Portuguese film producer Paulo Juan Branco.

Juan Branco grew up in the affluent neighbourhood of Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the 6th arrondissement of Paris and attended the Ecole alsacienne, an elite private school.

Juan Branco studied as an undergraduate at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and as a graduate and PhD student at the Ecole normale superieure, and at Paris-IV and Paris-I Universities; obtaining a "maitrise" in modern literature, a master's in political philosophy, another in geopolitics, and a doctorate in international law.

Juan Branco went on to do research at Yale University in 2013 and wrote a dissertation on the International Criminal Court and mass violence, travelling to the Central African Republic during the civil war.

Juan Branco defended his thesis on 16 November 2014 at the Ecole normale superieure.

Juan Branco was then employed in 2015 at the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg and at La Sapienza University in Rome.

In 2012, Juan Branco joined Francois Hollande's Socialist Party presidential election campaign, working in the "culture, audiovisual and media" team as the main collaborator of future Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti.

Juan Branco fell out with Filipetti when she did not appoint him as head of her office once she became minister; according to Branco, he was a victim of the Socialist government's new doctrine on the HADOPI law, an online anti-piracy law which he had opposed since 2009.

Juan Branco defended members of the movement, including Maxime Nicolle, in court pro bono.

Juan Branco then called for abstention in the 2019 European Parliament election in France.

Juan Branco worked as a legal advisor to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange between 2015 and 2019.

In May 2018, Juan Branco was one of the lawyers appointed by the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic to assist the country's newly-established special criminal court.

In June 2019, together with Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz and Shatz's students from Sciences Po, Juan Branco filed a 245-page submission to the International Criminal Court over the deaths of thousands of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean fleeing Libya; they called for the prosecution of European Union and member states over the EU's deterrence-based migration policy after 2014.

In 2021, Juan Branco represented one of the cyberbullies in the Mila affair, a teenager who was bullied online after she had insulted Islam.

Juan Branco represented a French fan club of FC Barcelona in an unsuccessful attempt to block Lionel Messi's move to Paris St-Germain from a financial fair play standpoint in 2021.

Juan Branco then became La Liga's lawyer in 2022 when the league mounted a similar challenge to Kylian Mbappe's new contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

Juan Branco was the legal advisor of Russian performance artist Petr Pavlensky who, in February 2020, disseminated an explicit video that led to the resignation of French deputy and Paris mayoral candidate Benjamin Griveaux.

Juan Branco voiced his support for Pavlensky's actions in a way that caused speculation that he himself had played a role in the affair.

Juan Branco requested a psychiatric examination of the victim, which was characterised by Griveaux's lawyer as "grotesque and hateful", and refused by the court.

In September 2021, Juan Branco received a reprimand from the Paris Bar Association for having sent a link to the offending video.

In March 2023, Juan Branco was invited to join the defence team of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who was facing charges of defamation after he had accused the tourism minister of mismanaging public funds.

Senegal meanwhile issued an international arrest warrant against Juan Branco, which did not prevent him entering the country illegally to attend a press conference of Sonko's legal team on 30 July 2023.

Juan Branco, who was not named in the interview, responded with a claim that it was Attal who was a bully.

In October 2016 Juan Branco offered his services as a lawyer to the terrorist Salah Abdeslam in a letter which was revealed by Valeurs Actuelles in February 2020.

Juan Branco explained that in October 2016 he had already qualified as a lawyer and could have been admitted to the bar at any time.

Juan Branco has used multiple identities since 2005 to embellish his own biography on Wikipedia and to settle accounts with others.

Juan Branco responded to the article with a denial, saying he had never attacked anyone on Wikipedia.