The 89-year-old former French cabinet minister Maurice Papon, who was last year sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the second World War deportation of thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps, yesterday refused to enter prison on the eve of a Supreme Court hearing.
Papon, who was convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity 18 months ago, remained free while his appeal was pending. He disappeared from his home near Paris on Sunday.
In a letter published yesterday by the Bordeaux newspaper Sud-Ouest, Papon said he would take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and implied that he was considering suicide.
Comparing himself to Charles de Gaulle, who led France's anti-Nazi resistance from exile Papon said: "The example was given by the greatest men of our history" and that "exile, however painful it may be for a man entering his 90th year" was the only choice left him.
The Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, and the Justice Minister, Ms Elisabeth Guigou, said yesterday that all means would be taken to arrest Papon, whether he was in France or abroad.
