Post by cruororism on Oct 10, 2003 10:41:41 GMT
Identity
Klaus Barbie, former commander of the Gestapo in Lyon, was born on 25 October 1943 in Bad Godesberg, near Bonn in Germany.
He died in prison on 25 September 1991.
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Charges
Klaus Barbie was found responsible for deporting hundreds of French Jews, notably for the arrest on 6 April 1944 of 44 Jewish children and 7 adults at the children house of Izieu, and for deporting them to the Auschwitz-Birkena camp. A preliminary investigation was begun by the prosecutor of Lyon on 12 February 1982 for crimes against humanity.
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Proceedings
On 3 November 1982, an arrest warrant was issued against Barbie but its international circulation was not effective. Klaus Barbie took refuge in Bolivia. He was expelled on 5 February 1983 to the Cayenne-Rochambeau airport, in French Guyana. As he got off the plane, he was detained for questioning by the police and transferred on the same day to the investigating judge who charged him for crimes against humanity and ordered its committing to prison.
On 7 June 1983, Barbie’s counsel requested his release. According to the former Nazi’s defender, the procedure was illegal because the detention for questioning was the consequence of a dissimulated extradition. The request was rejected by an order issued on 10 June 1983, confirmed on 8 July 1983 by the accusation Chamber.
A “dissimulated extradition” is a capture that does not respect the rules of the extradition procedure and which was concerted by two States. In this case, no extradition agreement has been signed by France and Bolivia. And, according to the accusation Chamber, “given their nature, crimes against humanity are not only subject to the French criminal law, but also to an international repressive order that does not acknowledge borders and extraditional rules.
Barbie appealed the ruling on the ground of a decision of the criminal Chamber of the Cour de cassation (French Supreme Court) pronounced on 3 May 1860. According to this decision, only a “dissimulated extradition” can nullify criminal proceedings.
The criminal Chamber of the Cour de cassation rejected Barbie’s arguments in its decision pronounced on 6 October 1983. The Court stated that there was no hindrance to prosecuting Klaus Barbie, and that the expulsion procedure was not null because the charges are part of the extradition field. The Court stated that crimes against humanity were subject not only to the French law but also to “an international repressive order”.
The Court also recalled that the member States of the United Nations have to “take all necessary measures” for crimes of war and crimes against peace and humanity to be repressed, and for those who are suspected of being responsible for these crimes to be transferred to “the countries where these crimes were committed, so that they are judged and punished according to the law of these countries.”
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Trial
The trial of Klaus Barbie took place from 11 May 1987 to 4 July 1987 before the criminal court of the Rhône in Lyon, France.
On 4 July 1987, Barbie was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.
