The international League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICA) announced here yesterday that it will ask President Georges Pompidou to reconsider the case of former Nazi collaborator Paul Touvier, who served as chief of the militia in Nazi-occupied Lyons and was sentenced to death in absentia at the end of World War II by a French military court. He was pardoned by Pompidou in Nov. 1971 at the request of local Catholic dignitaries.
LICA president Jean-Pierre Bloch said his organization would ask Minister of Justice Rene Pleven to begin new hearings because LICA “can prove that important elements were fraudulently eliminated from the Touvier file” before the file was transmitted to Pompidou last Nov. LICA accused a former Lyons police officer, Louis Tonnot of having censored the file. Tonnot is currently in prison for his alleged role in prostitution and racketeering scandals.
Among Touvier’s victims was Victor Basch, former president of the French Human Rights League. Bloch said LICA would not seek a rehearing based on Touvier’s war crimes since they are prescribed after 20 years under French law, but for his crimes against humanity.
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.
