A judge appointed by the Paris Court of Appeal has ruled that Rene Bousquet, former head of the Vichy police, will not be put in double jeopardy if he is tried for crimes against humanity for rounding up and ordering the mass deportation of Jews during World War II.
The 81-year-old retired industrialist was formally charged in April.
Judge Jean-Pierre Getti announced Friday that documents unearthed by Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld represent “new elements” that did not appear when Bousquet was tried and convicted of war crimes and collaboration in 1949, for which he drew a suspended sentence.
Getti was named by Judge Albert Moatty, president of the Court of Appeal, to evaluate the evidence. It will be up to Moatty, however, to decide whether to press the charges.
Klarsfeld discovered a copy of an order Bousquet issued to the French police in July 1942 to round up the Jews in Paris and hand them over to the Nazis.
Another document the lawyer found was a copy of Bousquet’s authorization to the police to arrest Jewish children in the still unoccupied zone of France, which Vichy governed.
Gendarmes hunted them down and turned them over to the Nazis for deportation to death camps.
When the charges were brought against Bousquet, sources close to President Francois Mitterrand indicated the president thought a trial would be inappropriate because it might “disturb the civil peace.”
According to the French media, Mitterrand, a wartime Resistance fighter, and Bousquet are old friends, which Mitterrand has not denied.
If Moatty decides to press charges, the Justice Ministry would have to set a trial date. The media believes that given the attitude of Bousquet’s political friends, he could well live out his years before going to court.
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