A lawyer for Nazi-era collaborator Maurice Papon, who died over the weekend, pledged on Sunday that the former Cabinet minister would be buried with his Legion of Honor decoration.
Papon was stripped of the Legion of Honor award, France's highest distinction, following his 1998 conviction on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity for ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,690 Jews, including 223 children, to Nazi death camps. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Papon, the No. 2 official in the Bordeaux region in southwestern France during Germany's World War II occupation, died on Saturday at age 96.
His lawyer, Francis Vuillemin, said he would see to it that Papon is buried with the decoration.
"I personally will make sure that the cross of Commander in the Legion of Honor ... accompanies him in his tomb," Vuillemin told France Info radio.
Papon, who was freed less than three years into his sentence under a law allowing early release for the ill and aging, made waves in 2004 by donning the decoration in photos that appeared in Le Point newsmagazine. A court later fined him 2,500 euros (US$3,275) for wearing the banned award.
The majority leader of France's National Assembly called Vuillemin's comments shocking.
Speaking on Radio-J, Bernard Accoyer said he thought President Jacques Chirac would act to prevent Papon from being buried with the decoration.
Accoyer said he "didn't doubt for a second" that Chirac would intervene "so that the law is respected and so nothing sullies this distinction."
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