Paul Touvier - Arrest and Trial

Arrest and Trial

In 1988, examining magistrate Claude Grellier assigned 48-year-old Lieut. Col. Jean-Louis Recordon to track down and arrest Paul Touvier. After a series of wiretaps and raids on Traditionalist Catholic religious communities and sympathisers, Recordon was tipped off that Touvier was hiding in a Society of Saint Pius X Priory in Nice.

On May 24, 1989, Recordon's team served a search warrant on the Priory. According to Ted Morgan, "Shortly after 8 A.M., with gendarmes stationed around the priory walls, Recordon knocked and showed his search warrant. He bounded up the stairs to the second floor, where monks' rooms opened onto a long hall. He started opening doors, and he had not opened many when he saw, standing in the middle of a room in cotton pajamas, a short elderly man with a lined face and thinning gray-blond hair. 'I suppose it's me you want,' the man said. 'I am Paul Touvier.' From other rooms emerged his wife, in a bathrobe, and his two children, Pierre and Chantal, now 39 and 40. They could have lived normal lives under assumed names, but had chosen to follow their father into hiding."

In response, the SSPX announced, "Despite the fact that most newspapers made a link between Mr. Touvier and the Society, there was in fact no connection. It is true he was taken prisoner at our priory, but he was merely let in by the prior as an act of charity to a homeless man. Since Archbishop Lefebvre's father died at the hands of the Nazis in a prison camp, that should be evidence enough that the Society does not and has not ever condoned the practices of the Nazis."

Touvier retained the services of the monarchist lawyer Jacques Tremollet de Villers, who later became president of the Traditionalist Catholic organization, La Cité Catholique.

Paul Touvier was granted provisional release in July 1991. His trial for crimes against humanity did not begin until March 17, 1994. A Traditionalist Catholic priest of the Society of Saint Pius X sat beside Touvier at the defense table, acting as his spiritual adviser. Touvier expressed remorse for his actions, saying, before the jury began deliberations, "I have never forgotten the victims of Rillieux. I think about them every day, every night."

On April 20, a nine-person jury found him guilty. Despite his attorney's promises to appeal, Touvier was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1995, Pierre and Chantal Touvier appealed to French President Jacques Chirac, asking for their father's release for reasons of ill health. The appeal was rejected.