Fresnes, France - The fugitive French war criminal Maurice Papon was expelled from Switzerland yesterday and flown to France to begin serving a 10-year sentence for rounding up Jews more than 50 years ago.
The elderly second World War criminal was arrested on Thursday in a hotel in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, ending a brief flight from justice that deeply embarrassed the French government.
Papon (88) is the first official from France's collaborationist wartime Vichy government ever convicted in connection with crimes against humanity. Efforts to bring him promptly back from Switzerland to a cell at Fresnes jail south of Paris were delayed when he fell ill shortly after detention.
Papon was sentenced to 10 years in 1998 for rounding up Jews later sent to Nazi death camps in Poland and Germany. He fled France ahead of his final appeal against the sentence this week.