Priest who backed torture dies

Paris - A Roman Catholic army chaplain who provoked national controversy when he defended the use of torture by French paratroopers during the 1954-1962 Algerian War of Independence has died aged 85, friends said yesterday. Father Louis Delarue, then priest with the 10th Parachute Division commanded by Gen Jacques Massu, wrote an open letter to officers at the height of the 1956-1957 Battle of Algiers saying torture was morally acceptable if it saved lives.