
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 20, 1994                   TAG: 9404200119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: VERSAILLES, FRANCE                                LENGTH: Short

FRENCHMAN CONVICTED AS NAZI AIDE

Nazi collaborator Paul Touvier, the first French citizen ever put on trial for crimes against humanity, was convicted early today by a French court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

After five weeks of chilling testimony that revived the memories of a tortured chapter in French history, a panel of nine jurors and three judges declared Touvier, 78, a former Lyon police official, had committed such crimes while working closely with the Nazi occupation forces in 1944.

It was an emotional verdict for the victims' families. Many had fought for decades to bring Touvier to justice - not an easy task, because successive French governments had resisted the notion of prosecuting a Frenchman for crimes against humanity, the sole French offense that carries no time limit.

- Knight-Ridder Newspapers

by CNB