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Swiss Send Papon Back to France After His Arrest at Resort
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE October 23-24, 1999 By Suzanne Daley New York Times Service PARIS — The manhunt for Maurice Papon ended swiftly and successfully on Friday after Swiss police swooped in on the 89-year-old Nazi collaborator, who was registered under a false name and hiding in a modest hotel in one of Europe's most exclusive ski resorts. As the officers were arresting Mr. Papon, who fled France rather than begin his 10-year sentence for sending hundreds of Jews to Nazi death camps, he began complaining of chest pains and was taken by ambulance to the prison ward of a hospital in Bern. But late Friday, the Swiss expelled him from the country, saying they would not harbor anyone convicted of crimes against humanity. Mr. Papon was handed over to the French police, who were ready with a helicopter to take the former Vichy government official to a prison outside of Paris. was no mechanism to restrict him or to take away his passport until the appeals process began. But after suffering days of criticism on the subject, French government officials were clearly glad that Mr. Papon had been caught quickly. "In the end, we were not impotent," Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said. Those who had tried for years to put Mr. Papon in jail also expressed their relief. "This thing has been going on now for 18 years," said Serge Klarsfeld. who did much of the research that was used to convict Mr. Papon. "There is an enormous satisfaction in thinking that soon we will see it end." Mr. Papon had apparently hoped that Switzerland would take him in because it does not recognize crimes against humanity. But Swiss officials were quick to say they would have nothing to do with such thinking. |
