Feb. 26



FRANCE:

Nazi collaborator loses appeal


French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon lost an appeal for a retrial on
Thursday, but won another chance in three months' time to have his
conviction for sending Jews to death camps during World War II overturned.

A legal commission rejected the appeal by the 93-year-old former government
minister, who was freed on health grounds in 2002, but ordered France's
highest court to hold a technical legal review of his sentence in May, legal
officials said.

Legal experts said the review could lead to a retrial for Papon because of a
technicality but was more likely to rule it out once and for all.

"It is very unlikely he will succeed," one expert said.

Justice Minister Dominique Perben said Thursday's decision would not
prejudge the outcome of the May review or affect "what everyone thinks
about what happened during the war and Mr Papon's role."

Papon was found guilty in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity but
was freed on health grounds after serving three years of a 10-year sentence
that he began only in 1999.

Papon's lawyers are trying to show the court was wrong to reject an appeal
he made in October 1999 when he had fled to Switzerland instead of going to
prison. He was quickly found travelling under an assumed name and returned
to France.

Papon, who was not present when Thursday's decision was announced, has
denied any wrongdoing despite his conviction for his wartime role as prefect
of the southwestern region of Gironde under the collaborationist Vichy
leadership.

He said during his trial that he knew nothing of the fate of the Jews who
were deported during that period and portrayed himself as helping the
anti-Nazi resistance.

Papon went on to have a successful political career after the war and was
budget minister when his past caught up with him in 1981. His appeal has
turned the spotlight back on a man and a period that most French people
would rather forget.

After years of silence, Papon angered relatives of victims of the Nazis last
week by saying in a magazine interview that he had done nothing wrong and
had no regrets.

"Papon said he had had no remorse and no regrets and I think that the man is
still as ... revanchist as ever," Michel Slitinsky, a representative of a
group which wants Papon sent back to jail, said after Thursday's ruling.

But one of Papon's lawyers, Francis Vuillemin, said: "Maurice Papon, who is
already free, is today presumed innocent. He must be able to benefit from a
new trial. Little of his conviction remains and we are going to ensure
nothing remains of it."

(source: Reuters)