PARIS - Criticism grew yesterday of police handling of a clampdown on French paedophiles following the suicides of four people, apparently from shame after they were taken in for questioning by gendarmes.
Mr Henri Leclerc, chairman of France's League of Human Rights, denounced antipaedophile sweeps as "scandalous"
following last week's operation which mobilised 2,500 gendarmes across the country. "They destroy and dishonour people," Mr Leclerc said of the raids. "All these people arrested because of cassettes, even of a paedophile character, are not Dutroux," he said, referring to the case of the Belgian paedophile accused of raping and murdering young girls.