Former war criminal Papon dies at 96

[vino]

PARIS, Feb 17, 2007 (AFP) - French war criminal Maurice Papon, convicted for his role in the World War II deportation of French Jews to Nazi death camps, died Saturday aged 96, his lawyer said.

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Papon had been admitted to hospital early this week in the eastern Paris suburbs for a heart operation described by Vuillemin as "worrying for a man approaching 97 years of age."

A senior official under the wartime Vichy government, Papon was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 1998 for his role in organising the deportation of hundreds of Jews to Nazi Germany, where most of them died in extermination camps.

He was released from jail in 2002 on medical grounds. He suffered from heart and kidney ailments, and has been living at his family home at Gretz-Armainvilliers, 20 miles (32 kilometres) east of Paris.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/france/20070217-France-Papon