The grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour, General Jean-Pierre Kelche, on Monday issued a statement to confirm that Papon was stripped of the order following his 1998 conviction for complicity in crimes against humanity.
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FRENCH NAZI COLLABORATOR PAPON TO BE BURIED WEDNESDAY
Received Monday, 19 February 2007 17:52:00 GMT
PARIS, Feb 19, 2007 (AFP) - French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon will be buried Wednesday in the town of Gretz-Armainvilliers, on the eastern outskirts of Paris, a police source said.
Papon, the only Vichy official to be convicted for the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps, died Saturday in hospital, four days after he underwent heart surgery. He was 96.
He is to be laid to rest in the cemetery of Gretz-Armainvilliers, the town where he had been living since his release from La Sante Prison in Paris in 2002 on medical grounds.
Papon's lawyer Francis Vuillemin vowed Sunday that the convicted war criminal would be buried with the Legion of Honour medal that he received from Charles de Gaulle in 1962 while he was Paris police chief.
Papon was stripped of the medal by decree in November 1999 as is the case for any appointee to the Legion who is convicted of a crime.
The grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour, General Jean-Pierre Kelche, on Monday issued a statement to confirm that Papon was stripped of the order following his 1998 conviction for complicity in crimes against humanity.
The governing Union for Popular Movement (UMP) party and the opposition Socialists said they opposed to the request, saying that he did not deserve France's highest distinction.
A senior official under the wartime Vichy government, Papon was sentenced to 10 years in jail for his role in organising the deportation of hundreds of Jews to Nazi Germany, where most of them died in extermination camps.
During the six-month trial, the longest in French history, Papon came to symbolize France's collaboration with the Nazis.
Politics and Society
FAMU01 Sat, 24 Feb 2007 04:25:50 GMT © AFP
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