Barbelith Underground > Switchboard > Joke of the day : maurice papon is free

not this funny.
just got this, brand hot. aboce text is from CNN... sorry, nobody had spoke about this yet...

"World War II Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon has been released from a French prison, just hours after a court ordered he should be freed on health grounds.

Papon, 92, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 1998 for complicity in crimes against humanity by signing deportation orders which sent French Jews to concentration camps.

The appeals court ruled his poor health was "incompatible with his remaining in detention" after a lower court had refused to free Papon and age and health grounds.

Justice minister Dominique Perben told France-Info radio: "We believed that his continued imprisonment was necessary, taking into account the seriousness of the charges against him."

Papon, a former police chief was imprisoned for 10 years in 1998 for his role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II.

Papon, who went on to become budget minister after the war, was the highest ranking former French official sentenced for collaboration with the Nazis.

He led the Bordeaux area police during the Nazi occupation of France and signed orders that led to the deportation of 1,690 Jews from Bordeaux between 1942-44. Most of those deported went on to Auschwitz.

The court ignored the request of the public prosecutor that Papon be kept in La Sante prison, Paris, because releasing him could present "trouble for public order," Reuters reported.

CNN's Jim Bittermann said: "The court said Papon was too ill to continue his sentence.

"He will remain under a kind of house arrest and will have to advise authorities of his movements following his release."

His six-month trial reopened painful memories about France's wartime collaboration and sparked a national debate on jailing the elderly.

Papon's legal team has launched a number of attempts to get him freed

The last request was filed earlier this year after a new clause in French law said inmates could be released if two independent doctors agreed the prisoner was either suffering from a fatal illness or that long-term health would be endangered by continued incarceration. Papon has had heart surgery.

When a French judge rejected the bid, Papon's lawyers appealed.

One of them Francis Vuillemin, told The Associated Press: "It is a crucial moment in his life. It is a great victory. He is totally free to come and go."

Jewish groups have vehemently opposed Papon's liberation and French President Jacques Chirac has turned down three requests to pardon Papon since he was convicted in 1998.

Serge Klarsfeld, a Nazi hunter and historian who helped produce much of the evidence used at Papon's trial, said the decision to free him "gives a feeling of injustice."

"We had fought so that he would stay in prison," Klarsfeld told AP. "What I hope is that this sick man doesn't turn out to be healthy."