War criminal Papon spared jail return by appeal court
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Your support makes all the difference.France's highest appeals court turned down a request by the Justice Ministry yesterday to send the Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon back to jail to finish his 10-year sentence.
Papon, 92, was convicted in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity for playing a role in the deportation of Jews from south-west France during the Second World War. He began his sentence in 1999.
He was released in September under a new law allowing early release for sick and elderly prisoners. Papon, who had triple coronary bypass surgery several years ago and has a pacemaker, had served just three years of his sentence.
His release sparked an outcry, and the Justice Ministry launched proceedings to have Papon returned to prison. Many were angry to see him walk out of jail unaided after doctors described him as bedridden.
Papon was convicted for playing a role in deporting 1,690 Jews in the Bordeaux area to Nazi death camps. He was the second most senior official in Bordeaux during the German occupation.
Papon fled to Switzerland after his conviction but was arrested and began serving his sentence in October 1999.
During the war, some 76,000 Jews, including 12,000 children, were deported from France; only 2,500 survived.
The Justice Ministry had launched proceedings to have Papon returned to prison to serve his sentence, arguing his release posed a threat to public order. But Louis Di Guardia, a prosecutor whose role is to give impartial advice to the Court of Cassation, said during a hearing that the government's case rested on tenuous legal foundations.
A total of 19 prisoners have been given early releases since the new law was passed a year ago, and five of them have since died.
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