Papon's lawyer vows to bury him with Legion of Honor medal--taken away in 1998

PARIS -- A prominent French political figure who ordered hundreds of Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II will be buried wearing his Legion of Honor medal, his lawyer said Sunday, even though the deceased man was stripped of his right to wear the decoration in 1998.

Maurice Papon, the No. 2 official in the Bordeaux region in southwestern France during Germany's World War II occupation, was convicted in 1998 on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity. The former French cabinet minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison for ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,690 Jews, including 223 children, to Nazi death camps.

He died on Saturday at age 96.