FRANCE: Maurice Papon, the 92- year-old former civil servant who was convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the second World War deportation of 1,560 Jews to Nazi death camps, was freed by the Paris appeals court yesterday after serving only 2½ years of his 10-year sentence.
His unexpected release because of ill health was ordered against the recommendation of the public prosecutor and the ministry of justice. President Jacques Chirac has three times refused to pardon Papon, who served as a cabinet minister under President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Papon's trial, the longest in modern French history, was an admission of the Vichy collaborationist government's shared responsibility for Nazi war crimes. Now his release has fuelled a debate on where justice stops and vengeance begins.
Some prominent French Jews, including the former justice minister, Mr Robert Badinter, argue that while it was important to convict Papon, to imprison a 92- year-old in ill health is wrong.
As secretary general of the Gironde prefecture in 1942 and 1943, Papon drew up lists of Jews for arrest and transport to Drancy. From Drancy they were taken to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. During his six-month trial, from October 1997 until April 1998, Papon claimed he was anguished by the Nazis' treatment of Jews, and that he tried to save as many as possible. After 19 hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty.
Papon's release was justified under a March 2002 law that says prisoners whose lives are in danger, or whose state of health is "incompatible with detention", should be freed. One AIDS sufferer has been released, but human rights and Jewish groups complained that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other prisoners are more ill than Papon. Four doctors reported that he suffers from severe heart disease. In July, the European Court of Human Rights ruled he received an unfair trial because an appeal was not considered after he fled to Switzerland.
Mr Michel Slitinsky, whose family perished after they were deported by Papon, responded angrily to his release. Mr Slitinsky filed the first lawsuit against Papon in 1981, 16 years before his trial. "He did not show mercy in October 1942, towards six Jews who suffered from serious health problems and who, instead of being hospitalised, were thrown in the convoy of October 26th," Mr Slitinsky said.
Mr Julien Dray, a socialist deputy in the National Assembly, said medical reasons could not justify the court's decision. "The memory of all victims of the Nazis is insulted today," Mr Dray said. "Were there 'health reasons' for the families who went up in smoke?"
Mr Jean-Marc Varaut, Papon's lawyer, said his client was surprised and overjoyed. "This reserved man kissed his lawyers. He didn't expect it; he couldn't believe it. He hadn't packed his belongings - his papers, the signed photograph of General de Gaulle on his bedside table." Riot police protected the elderly prisoner as he walked unassisted out the door of La Santé prison to Mr Varaut's waiting car. Onlookers cried: "Papon fascist" and "Papon in prison".
The release was all the more painful for the relatives of victims because Papon has never expressed sorrow or remorse for his actions. Mr Serge Klarsfeld, president of the Association of Sons and Daughters of French Deportees, speculated that Papon's social standing helped him. "You mustn't forget that he was Gen de Gaulle's chief of police. He was minister of the budget for three years. The thought of seeing him die in prison shocked people of his category; an ordinary person would not have been released early."