Chronology of Maurice Papon Case
Here are the key dates in the Maurice Papon case:
1942-1944: Papon serves pro-Nazi Vichy regime as deputy prefect in the Gironde prefecture in southwestern France.
1958: Named Paris police chief.
1978: Named budget minister in Cabinet.
1981: Wartime role revealed by satirical weekly. A committee composed of top French resistance figures says Papon gave occasional service to the underground, but conclude he should have resigned when the roundup of Jews began in July 1942.
1982: Holocaust victims file suit; Bordeaux prosecutors open investigation.
1983: Papon first charged with crimes against humanity.
1983: Thirty-seven new families file suit; Papon again charged.
1987: Appeals court dismisses case for procedural irregularities.
1988: Papon again charged with crimes against humanity.
1995: State prosecutors in Bordeaux reduce charges to complicity in crimes against humanity.
1997: Court rejects Papon's final appeal.
1997: Trial opens Oct. 8 in Bordeaux.
1998: April 2, jury of three judges and nine civilians finds Papon guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity for organizing arrests and deportations, though it absolves him of complicity in their subsequent deaths at Auschwitz.
October 1999: Papon flees to Switzerland, but is caught, returned to France and begins serving his 10-year prison sentence.
Sept. 18, 2002: Appeals court orders Papon freed, accepting his lawyers' arguments that the 92-year-old is too sick to remain in jail.