Mr. Papon relentlessly proclaimed his innocence, arguing that he was only carrying out orders...

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/263296,CST-NWS-xpapon19.article

Convicted in deporting of French Jews in WWII

February 19, 2007
BY ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS -- Maurice Papon, a former French Cabinet minister who was convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in deporting Jews during World War II and became a symbol of France's collaboration with the Nazis, died over the weekend. He was 96.

Mr. Papon was the highest-ranking Frenchman to be convicted of a role in the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. snip

In a February 2001 letter to the justice minister, Mr. Papon said he had neither ''regrets nor remorse for a crime I did not commit and for which I am in no way an accomplice.''

Mr. Papon served only three years of a 10-year sentence for ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,690 Jews, including 223 children, from the Bordeaux area to Nazi death camps. snip

Mr. Papon relentlessly proclaimed his innocence, arguing that he was only carrying out orders. On his final day on the stand, he said he was a victim of ''the saddest chapter in French legal history.''