Editing Klaus Barbie (section)

==Extradition, trial and death==

In February 1983, the newly elected democratic government of [[Hernán Siles Zuazo]] arrested Barbie in La Paz on the pretext of his owing the government US$10,000 for goods he was supposed to have delivered but did not. A few days later, the government delivered him to France to stand trial.<ref>{{cite web | author-last1= Lisciotto |author-first1= Carmelo |author-last2= Webb |author-first2= Chris | date = 2016 |title=Klaus Barbie, The Butcher of Lyon | work=Holocaust Research Project | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/barbie.html | access-date=31 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/06/world/ex-gestapo-aide-is-taken-to-france.html|title=Ex-Gestapo Aide Is Taken To France|first=E.J.|last=Dionne Jr.|work=New York Times|date=6 February 1983|access-date=26 November 2024}}</ref>

Shortly after Barbie's extradition, evidence emerged that Barbie had worked for U.S. intelligence in Germany and that U.S. agents may have been instrumental in Barbie's flight to Bolivia to escape prosecution in France. [[Allan Ryan (attorney)|Allan Ryan]], Director of the [[Office of Special Investigations (United States Department of Justice)|Office of Special Investigations]] (OSI) of the U.S. Justice Department, recommended to U.S. Attorney General [[William French Smith]] that the matter be investigated.<ref>{{cite book |title=Quiet Neighbors- Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals In America |last=Ryan |first=Allan A. Jr. |year=1984 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=USA |isbn=0-15-175823-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin |first=John| date= Feb 2021 |title=It Takes A Thief |journal=World War II  |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=38–45 }}</ref> Following a lengthy investigation and a full report that was released to the public, Ryan concluded that "officers of the United States government were directly responsible for protecting a person wanted by the government of France on criminal charges and in arranging his escape from the law."<ref name=RyanReport>{{Cite report |author=Ryan, Allan A. |date=August 1983 |title=Klaus Barbie and the United States Government—A Report to the Attorney General of the United States  | location = Washington, D.C. | publisher=Justice Department, U.S Government|url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf |page=1}}</ref>

Ryan felt that the initial decision by the U.S. government to use Barbie during [[Cold War]] counter-intelligence work, while reprehensible in light of his war crimes, might be defended on national security interest grounds. Doing so was no different from what other World War II victor nations were doing at the time; it appeared to have been done without any [[Counterintelligence Corps|U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps]] (CIC) knowledge of Barbie's atrocities in Lyon. After those atrocities became well publicised, however, Ryan regarded it as indefensible for CIC personnel to lie to higher U.S. authorities and help Barbie escape Europe to Bolivia rather than honour an outstanding French warrant for his arrest.<ref name=RyanReport/>{{rp|p.203}} As a result of Ryan's report and personal recommendation, the U.S. government made a formal apology to France for enabling Barbie to escape French justice for 33 years.<ref>{{cite news|last=United Press International (UPI)|title=US Sends Apology To France On Barbie|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|page=A12|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19830816&id=FjkgAAAAIBAJ&pg=4047,246561&hl=en|date=16 August 1983|access-date=27 November 2015}}</ref>

In 1984, Barbie was indicted for crimes committed as [[Gestapo]] chief in Lyon between 1942 and 1944, chief among which was the [[Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup]]. The [[jury trial]] started on 11 May 1987 in Lyon before the [[Rhône (department)|Rhône]] ''[[Cour d'assises|Cour d'Assises]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/28/klaus-barbie-nazi-trial-lyons-1987|date=28 May 1987|title=The trial of Klaus Barbie|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref> The head prosecutor was [[Pierre Truche]]. One witness at the trial was [[Michel Thomas]], a Polish [[polyglot]] Jew, who had narrowly escaped arrest by Barbie in Lyon during World War II.<ref>{{cite news |last=Robbins |first=Christopher |date=19 January 2005 |title=Michel Thomas |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jan/19/guardianobituaries.obituaries |access-date=23 February 2025 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

Barbie's defence was funded by Swiss pro-Nazi financier [[François Genoud]] and led by attorney [[Jacques Vergès]]. Barbie was tried on 41 separate counts of [[crimes against humanity]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-50828696|title=Val d'Isere: The doctor who hid a Jewish girl - and the resort that wants to forget|date=5 January 2020|newspaper=BBC News|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref> The father of French [[Ministry of Justice (France)|Minister for Justice]] [[Robert Badinter]] had died in [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibor]] after being deported from Lyon during Barbie's tenure.<ref name="Beigbeder2006">{{cite book|author=Beigbeder, Yves|title=Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals And Commissions (1940–2005)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtaU8_z2SngC&pg=PA204|access-date=21 May 2012|year=2006|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=9789004153295|pages=204ff}}</ref>

Barbie gave his name as Klaus Altmann, the name that he used while in Bolivia. He claimed that his extradition was technically illegal and asked to be excused from the trial and returned to his cell at [[Prison Saint-Paul]]. This was granted. He was brought back to court on 26 May 1987 to face some of his accusers, about whose testimony he had "nothing to say".<ref>{{cite journal | author = Eytan, Edwin | date = 27 May 1987 | title = Six Witnesses Identify Barbie, Who Was Ordered Back to Court | journal = JTA Daily News Bulletin | volume = 65 | issue = 99 | page = 3 | url = http://pdfs.jta.org/1987/1987-05-27_099.pdf |access-date=24 May 2024}} New York, NY: [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] (JTA).</ref>

[[File:Jacques Vergès et Klaus Barbie lors de son procès. Lyon 1987 (dessin de Calvi).jpg|thumb|Caricature of Vergès and Klaus Barbie during the trial, by Calvi]]

Barbie's defence lawyer, Jacques Vergès, had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in the historic [[French colonial empire]]. His strategy was to use the trial to talk about war crimes committed by France since 1945. He got the prosecution to drop some of the charges against Barbie due to French legislation that had protected French citizens accused of the same crimes under the [[Vichy regime]] and in [[French Algeria]]. Vergès argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the supposedly ordinary actions of [[colonialism|colonialists]] worldwide, and that his trial was tantamount to [[selective prosecution]]. Barbie's final statement, spoken in French, was: "I never committed the roundup in Izieu.  I fought the Résistance, which I respect, with toughness but that was war, and the war is over."<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=X10nG2T-uDAC&pg=PA23   |title= Remembering in Vain The Klaus Barbie Trial and Crimes Against Humanity|first= Alain|last= Finkielkraut|year=2010  |page=23|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231501378}}</ref>

The court rejected the defence's argument, and on 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in Lyon (of [[leukemia]], 
and prostate cancer) four years later, at the age of 77.<ref>{{cite news|last=Saxon|first=Wolfgang|date=26 September 1991|title=Klaus Barbie, 77, Lyons Gestapo Chief|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/26/world/klaus-barbie-77-lyons-gestapo-chief.html|access-date = 24 May 2024}}</ref>