An 83-year-old French army general who described in a book how he personally tortured and killed prisoners during the Algerian war of independence goes on trial in Paris today on a charge of trying to justify war crimes.
Gen Paul Aussaresses faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a Fr300,000 (£40,000) fine.
The publication of his memoirs - Special Services, Algeria 1955-1957 - provoked outrage in May because of his frank and unrepentant account of the brutal treatment of Algerian captives.
An initial attempt to prosecute the one-eyed general for actually committing war crimes failed because of a 1968 amnesty law, and the Human Rights League (LDH) - which launched the proceedings - fell back on a rarely-invoked charge of "being an apologist for war crimes".
"Gen Aussaresses is going to have to explain why he considered torture, kidnapping and summary executions to be normal and part of his military duty," said the LDH president, Mr Michel Tubiana.
In the book, Gen Aussaresses said he personally tortured and killed 24 Algerian prisoners as part of the French army's attempt to stop a campaign of bomb attacks and shootings by the National Liberation Front (FLN).
Describing the death of an FLN leader, Mr Larbi Ben M'Hidi, he wrote: "With the help of my soldiers, we grabbed Ben M'Hidi and then hanged him to make it look like a suicide. When I was certain he was dead, I had him taken down and driven to hospital."
Gen Aussaresses has refused to express regret for his actions, saying they were part of an accepted war-time policy for extracting urgent information, and had the backing of top politicians, including the then justice minister - and future president - Mr Francois Mitterrand.
"I will never say it was my fault, never," he said, on the eve of his trial. "Alas torture does serve a purpose. And today I would do the same thing again, for example if I had a bin Laden in my hands, just as I did with Ben M'Hidi."
"The general did not try to justify torture. He simply bore witness to a reality and brought his own contribution to the task of remembering," said Gen Aussaresses's lawyer, Mr Gilbert Collard.
Since publication of the book, Gen Aussaresses has been publicly disgraced by being stripped of his rank in the army and suspended from membership of the national Legion of Honour.