Maurice Papon, the 92 year-old French Nazi collaborator convicted of crimes against humanity, walked free from a Paris jail today after a court ordered his release on medical grounds.
The former Vichy official left La Sante jail on foot and was driven by one of his lawyers to the family home at Gretz-Armainvilliers, east of the capital, from where - under the terms of his release - he must seek court authorisation to move.
Another of his lawyers, Mr Francis Vuillemin, described the release - seven years short of his full term - as a "great victory," but Jewish groups were outraged saying they feared public disturbances.
A small crowd of bystanders chanted "Murder" and "Shame" as Papon was driven away.
France's only surviving convict from World War II, Papon was serving a 10-year term after being found guilty in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of more than 1,500 Jews from the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
At a hearing on September 4th his lawyers urged his immediate release because of the grave deterioration in his medical condition, with doctors reporting chronic malfunction of the heart, circulatory system and kidneys.
The state prosecutor opposed his release, arguing the crimes of which he was convicted were of an "exceptional seriousness" and could "incite disturbances to public order," if he were set free.
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Last year, President Jacques Chirac refused to grant Papon clemency, despite appeals from a number of eminent public figures. Jewish groups oppose his release because they say he has showed no remorse for his actions.
Reacting to his release the president of the League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) Mr Patrick Gaubert said: "This is an upsetting decision. Maurice Papon deserved to stay in prison.
"We have always said that he should stay in prison because he committed crimes that were unpardonable ... His detention was the minimum that society could do for those poor children who died because of him," he said.
Mr Michel Slitinsky, a holocaust survivor who in 1981 first exposed Papon to the media, said it was a "shocking decision ... This measure will only encourage extremists who now know they have partial impunity for their anti-Semitic copnvictions."
Papon's lawyers made use of a recent change in France's legal code which says that a prison term can be suspended if the convict's state of health is "incompatible with continued detention."
AFP