French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon was buried yesterday with his Legion of Honor award, his lawyer said.
Papon had been barred from wearing France's highest distinction following his 1998 conviction on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the arrest of Jews during World War II. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Papon, the second-ranked official in the Bordeaux region in southwestern France during Germany's World War II occupation, died Saturday at age 96.
Papon was buried in a family plot. About 40 people and as many journalists and police officers attended the ceremony, in the town of Gretz-Armainvilliers, southeast of Paris.
"Maurice Papon was surrounded by his family, by a priest, by friends and surviving resistance fighters who are faithful to his memory," his lawyer said in a statement Wednesday.
"Today marks the end of this strange affair, which now belongs to history," he said.
Papon, was freed less than three years into his sentence under a law allowing early release for the ill and ageing.
AP