World Notes FRANCE

Ever since the trial of Accused Nazi War Criminal Klaus Barbie began in Lyons last May, Defense Attorney Jacques Verges had threatened to put the conscience of France in the dock. He hinted at possible revelations of French collaboration with the Nazis and of human-rights violations during the Algerian war of the 1950s. Last week Verges presented his case -- and he revealed almost nothing.

Barbie's flamboyant French lawyer took just one day to interview six witnesses, including a former French collaborator who implied that the former Lyons Gestapo chief was just following orders when he killed and deported hundreds of Jews and members of the Resistance. Attempts to resurrect French atrocities in Algeria were shrugged off as irrelevant by the court's presiding judge. Prosecutors will now begin their summations.