The European Court of Human Rights has ordered France to grant a proper appeal hearing to ageing former police chief Maurice Papon.
Papon was jailed for deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during the Second World War.
The Strasbourg court said that by denying 91-year-old Papon the right to appeal against his 1998 conviction and 10-year sentence, France had violated his right to a fair trial under the European Convention of human rights.
Papon was convicted on April 2nd, 1998, of signing orders that led to the deportation of 1,690 Jews from the Bordeaux area to Nazi death camps.
Papon, also a former cabinet minister, appealed against the verdict a day after his conviction. On September 17th, 1999, he asked not to have to surrender to custody before an appeals court had heard his case. That request was denied, causing Papon to flee to Switzerland, which then ordered him to leave the country.
When he returned to France, a Paris appeal court said that since he had fled, Papon had forfeited his right to an appeal of his 1998 conviction.
Papon headed the Bordeaux area police during the war under France's Vichy government. He became a budget minister after the war and is the highest-ranking French citizen convicted in such a case.
The rights court said that while "it was fully aware of the extremely serious nature of the offences", the fact Papon had been prosecuted and convicted on charges of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity did not mean France did not have to grant him protection of his rights and freedoms.
It said Papon "had suffered an excessive restriction of his right of access to a court, and therefore of his right to a fair trial".
AP