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Indignité nationale (French for 'national unworthiness') was a legally definedoffence inFrance created for thetrials of collaborators that followed theliberation of France duringWWII. The offence ofindignité nationale was meant to fill a legal void: while the laws in application in 1939 had provisions against treason, murder and such crimes, they did not take into account reprehensible behaviours which occurred during theoccupation and in theVichy regime, such as participation in theWaffen SS or in theMilice. The bill of the"Ordinance Instituting National Indignity" [fr][1] was presented by theProvisional Government of the French Republic government on June 26, 1944 and adopted by the National Assembly on August 26, 1944.[2] In addition to typical punishments, such as imprisonment and death, a temporary or permanentdeprivation of civil rights was also imposed on those convicted ofindignité nationale, under the namedégradation nationale (transl. national demotion).Indignité nationale ceased to be a criminal offence in January 1951, and the punishment ofdégradation nationale was lifted in August 1953.[3]
Gaullist legal preparations to post-war purges started inLyon in 1942. Chief prosecutor for ParisMaurice Rolland [fr] joined the Lyon Commission in 1943.[4]Charles de Gaulle was inclined to leave the post-war purges toad hoc decisions of the judges, relying solely on the 1939 statute that punished treason with death. Meetings of theConsultative Assembly, which convened beginning on January 11, 1944, persuaded de Gaulle that "containing vengeance" would be more difficult than he thought.[5] Indeed, in the few months that followed theNormandy landings, at least 4,500 alleged collaborators were killed in summaryjudicial executions.[6]
De Gaulle and his government needed a legal instrument which, unlike the 1939 law on treason, would not involve harsh sentences and could thus be applied to a wide circle of offenders. They also wanted to avoid enacting anex post facto law, and created the concept ofcontinuing "state of indignity" as a workaround solution.[6] The new law instituted a new concept of a criminalstate of a person, the state of indignity. A person entered the state of indignity through committing certain acts (not necessarily crimes) in the past, and thisstate continued until redemption through punishment.[6] The offence is defined as "having after June 16 1940 knowingly aided, directly or indirectly, Germany or its allies in France or abroad, or having attacked the unity of the Nation, or the liberty of the French people, or the equality between them",[7] including the following acts named by law:
By the beginning of 1951, whenindignité nationale ceased to be a criminal offence, more than 46,000 people had been convicted: 3,158 by theCourts of Justice (counting only the cases whereindignité nationale was the main offence) and 46,145 cases tried by the Civic Chambers. Only 3,184 people so charged were acquitted.[9] In 1953, all surviving convictees, except those convicted by the High Court, wereamnestied ofindignité nationale charges.[3]
Charges ofindignité nationale were invoked again during theAlgerian War. Several "suitcase carriers" of the Jeanson network were sentenced long after 1951, not for having aided theAxis, but for having "attacked the unity of the Nation, or the liberty of the French people, or the equality between them."[citation needed]
After theJanuary 2015 Île-de-France attacks, French President François Hollande considered the possibility of revivingindignité nationale as a penalty for French citizens who contribute to a terrorist attack. After deputyPhilippe Meunier of theUMP previously brought the idea before theNational Assembly in November 2014, it was taken up again byNathalie Kosciusko-Morizet andAnne Hidalgo.Marine Le Pen declared herself against the idea, calling it a "gadget measure".
Socialist deputy Jean-Jacques Urvoas, author of a 2015 parliamentary report on the issue, declared himself for adégradation républicaine ('Republican demotion') instead ofindignité nationale'.
Those found guilty ofindignité nationale were subject to a special penalty known asdégradation nationale ('national demotion') and, from September 30, 1944,[10]confiscation of property.Dégradation entailed:
The duration of disqualification, from five years to life, was decided by the court on a case-by-case basis.[10] The courts could suspend but not lift the penalty for those who served in theFree French Forces or participated in the Resistance.[10] The courts were not allowed to choose a specific form of disqualification and had to invoke the whole set of bans or acquit the person.[10] The only elective punishments were the confiscation of property and a ban on living in certain areas.[10] The offenders also lost their pension rights, although this was not intended by the legislators and was uncommon in practice.[10]