The preliminary investigation into Klaus Barbie’s war-time activities in France is nearly finished and he will be probably brought to trial early next year.
French judicial sources say investigating Magistrate Christian Riss and Lyon Public Prosecutor Louis Fouletier are putting the last touches to the file. Barbie will be indicted for crimes against humanity, which under French law are not covered by the statute of limitations.
Barbie, who served as deputy head of the gestapo in the city of Lyons practically till the end of the war, was expelled by Bolivia to France last February. He has been held since then at the Saint Luc Prison, a former fort in which Barbie held most of his prisoners during the war.
Riss and Fouletier last week met West German officials familiar with the case and also consulted the available documentation at the Ludwigsburg Center on Nazi crimes.
According to the West German News magazine, Der Spiegel, they also conferred at length with the District Attorney of Cologne, Rudolp Holtfort, generally believed to be the main expert on anti-Jewish war crimes in West Germany. Der Spiegel says he as well as Munich Public Prosecutor Alfred Streim, who first opened a file on Barbie, might be called to testify at his trial.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
