BARBIE TRIAL DELAYED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201630017-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: September 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-
ARTICLE AP__PEARc~ WASHINGTON POST
ON PAGE9-~ 11 September 1985
Barbie
Trial
Delayed
Hearings Ordered
On New Evidence
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Foreign Service
PARIS, Sept. 10-French mag-
istrates today delayed the trial of
Klaus Barbie, a former Nazi ac-
cused of crimes against humanity,
by ordering further pretrial hear-
ings to examine new evidence.
Lawyers said that the trial, which
had been expected to open in No-
vember in Lyons, where Barbie was
Gestapo chief during World War II,
is now unlikely to begin before the
start of next year at the earliest.
Barbie, nicknamed the "butcher
of Lyons" because of a e e war-
time atrocities, has been under de-
tention in France since his ex ul-
sion from Bolivia in February 1983.
or wi a interest in the case has
been heightened y Bar ie s dra.
return to Lyons and reve a-
tions about a postwar career that
included coo ration with U.S. mil-
The ar inte i ence.
new evidence, found in a
search of French historical ar-
chives, concerns the list of prison-
ers aboard the last train from
France to the Auschwitz concentra-
tion camp on Aug. 11, 1944. Bar-
bie, 72, is accused of complicity in
murder by helping to organize their
deportation.
A decree by Lyons magistrates
noted contradictions between the
list of deportees as reconstructed
from the Auschwitz archives and
new documents supplied by the
French Ministry of Veterans. It said
further pretrial hearings would be
necessary to "modify" the charges
against Barbie.
Barbie's defense lawyer, Jacques
Verges, said that today's move
gave French authorities "a pretext
to delay the trial." Verges has ac-
cused the Socialist government of
seeking to postpone hearings until
after parliamentary elections next
March in order to avoid a potential-
ly damaging political controversy on
French collaboration with the Nazis
in World War II.
Justice Ministry officials have
denied suggestions that the trial is
being deliberately held up.
The latest delay in the long
awaited trial underscores the legal
complexities involved in preparing a
case against a former Nazi more
than four decades after his alleged
crimes.
French prosecutors already have
had to narrow their case against
Barbie to three specific charges
under the heading of "crimes
against humanity." In 1964, France
amnestied "war crimes"-a cate-
gory that would include Barbie's
actions against members of the
wartime resistance movement.
This means that Barbie will not
be tried for the crime with which
his name is most associated here:
the torture of jean Moulin, the lead-
er of the French resistance. Moulin,
now regarded as a national hero in
France, died of his wounds. Mem-
bers of French veterans' associa-
tions have appealed against the nar-
rowing of the charges.
In addition to the charge of or-
ganizing the last "death train" to
Auschwitz, Barbie is also accused of
rounding up 52 Jewish schoolchil-
dren in April 1944 and deporting 86
members of a French Jewish asso-
ciation in February 1943. The fa-
ther of Robert Badinter, the
present French justice minister,
was one of the prominent Jews
whose deportation is said to have
been ordered by Barbie.
Verges has claimed that there is
insufficient evidence to convict his
client. He has pointed to contradic-
tory testimony by eyewitnesses
over whether Barbie was at the sta-
tion when the train left.
R D P90-00965 R000201630017-5
The new documents found by the
Ministry of Veterans indicate that
the last death train to Auschwitz
carried nine children between 2 and
13 years old, of whom seven died.
They do not, however, contain
some names submitted to the court
by a prominent French Nazi hunter,
Serge Klarsfeld, on the basis of re-
search into Auschwitz records.
The Lyons magistrates suggested
that Barbie could also be charged
with a "crime against humanity" as
an accomplice in the murder of seven
other Jews whose names have turned
up in the new document.