France
 Maurice Papon was, from June 1942 up until the French Liberation, General Secretary of the Gironde Prefecture with responsibility for all matters related to Jewish affairs.
As a result of several legal complaints from families of deportees, this former civil servant of the Vichy regime was convicted on 2nd April 1998, of complicity in crimes against humanity by the Criminal Tribunal of the Department of Gironde for having organised the deportation of 1560 persons to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz via Drancy, in eight rail convoys between July 1942 and May 1944.
An appeal was lodged against his conviction. Given that he did not present himself to the prison on the eve of the examination of his appeal, as required by law his appeal was not heard. Maurice Papon then decided to flee his country by taking refuge in Switzerland. He was rapidly discovered there and on the 22nd October the Swiss Federal Council decided to extradite Maurice Papon to France (in French).
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