French free Nazi collaborator

WARTIME collaborator Maurice Papon, convicted of sending French Jews to Nazi death camps, was jeered as he walked out of a Paris prison yesterday after an appeal court ordered his release.

Jewish groups were stunned at the court’s ruling that the 92-year-old is too old and sick to serve out the rest of his 10-year sentence.

The ruling provoked outpourings of frustration and dismay from Holocaust survivors and others who fought a long battle to bring Papon to justice.

Papon, who was convicted in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity, emerged from La Sante prison surrounded by dozens of police.

He plans to “rest, rebuild his health and spend time with family and friends,” his lawyer Jean-Marc Varaut said. “He did not believe it,” Varaut said. “I told him he was free. He said: ‘How did it happen?’”

Papon rose to budget minister after the war, making him the highest ranking former French official sentenced for collaboration with the Nazis.

His six-month trial was the longest in French history and revived painful memories of France’s wartime past.

Papon led the Bordeaux area police during the Nazi occupation and was convicted in 1998 for signing orders that led to the deportation of 1,690 Jews from Bordeaux from 1942 to 1944.

Most were sent to Auschwitz. All but a handful died.

Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, a historian who helped produce much of the evidence against Papon, said the decision “gives a feeling of injustice”.

“We had fought so that he would stay in prison,” he said. “What I hope is that this sick man does not turn out to be healthy.”

Papon’s continuing imprisonment had sparked impassioned debate in France about jailing the elderly.

Two French former prime ministers were among those who had called for his release.

Papon had a triple coronary bypass surgery several years ago and had a pacemaker fitted in January 1999.

His lawyers have repeatedly pressed for his release because of his ill health.

They filed another request over the summer, based on a new provision in French law that allows prisoners to be freed if two independent doctors agree they are suffering from a fatal illness, or their long-term health is jeopardised by remaining behind bars.

A court rejected the request on July 24 and Papon’s lawyers appealed against the ruling.

The panel of three appeals court judges said it based its decision on the opinion of several doctors who said

Papon’s health was “incompatible with his remaining in detention”.

Justice Minister Dominique Perben said the decision was not what he, the prosecutor, or the ministry had hoped for.

“We believed that his continued imprisonment was necessary, taking into account the seriousness of the charges against him,” he said.