A notorious Nazi war criminal, Klaus Barbie, twice sentenced to death in absentia in France for the murder of thousands of civilians, last week met with the President of Bolivia, where he has been living in hiding since the end of World War II. The French Foreign Ministry today expressed its “deep surprise” at the meeting between Barbie, wanted by several countries on charges of war crimes, and Gen. Guido Vildoso.
Barbie,who obtained Bolivian citizenship in 1957 under the name of Klaus Altmann, was quoted as having said in La Paz that he met the President “to discuss judicial and administrative matters.” The meeting took place at the Presidential palace.
Barbie’s extradition was requested by France in 1974 and again in 1979 and is to renew its request next month. On the two previous occasions the Bolivians turned down the extradition on vague legal grounds.
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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.
