| Raymond de Geouffre de la Pradelle | |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1910 |
| Birth Place: | Paris, France |
| Death Place: | Versailles, France |
| Occupation: | Lawyer |
Raymond de Geouffre de La Pradelle de Leyrat (November 22, 1910 – July 19, 2002) was a French lawyer.
His name comes from a village located in the commune of Rignac in Aveyron. Born to Albert Geouffre de La Pradelle and Thérèse Paul-Toinet, he married Hélène Boudet de Castelli (b. 1915) on October 11, 1934. Together, Hélène and Raymond had three children: Géraud, Arnaud, and Marie-Ange. After getting divorced from Castelli, he married Éliane Puech on June 12, 1972.
He studied at the Lycée Buffon and the École Tannenberg in Paris. He became a graduate of the Free School of Political Science in diplomacy and became secretary of the Italo-Ethiopian Commission of 1928. Later, in 1935, a member of the Conference of Lawyers In 1938, he became the organization's secretary general, and in 1951, vice-president. From 1956 to 1960, de Geouffre was a member of the French division of the International Law Association. He acted as the general secretary of the International Juridical Air Committee from 1952 to 1955, and later a member of the France-Egypt Association in 1965.
Before the Second World War, he defended members of La Cagoule; then, after the war, his uncle Pierre, municipal councilor, lawyer and magistrate, who had been prosecuted for his role as an investigating judge in the Vichy government.[1]
In 1949, while defending German soldiers prosecuted in French courts, he asked Henri Donnedieu de Vabres for clarification on the legal basis of the Nuremberg trials.[2] He then sat, within the Allied High Commission, on the steering committee of the Association for the Safeguarding of French Assets and Interests Abroad (ASBIFE), alongside representatives of firms such as Saint-Gobain, Schlumberger, Société Alsatian company in mechanical construction, the rubber, petroleum, chemical, mechanical and electrical construction, textile and food sectors, including five champagne houses.[3]
On September 27, 1956, he published a guest column on the question of whether or not Egypt had violated international law during the Suez Crisis.[4] In 1959, in Le Monde, he refused any Soviet takeover of the Moon after the Moon landing of Luna 2.[5] In 1960, in another guest column, this time in Le Figaro, he argued that only Germany had jurisdiction to try Adolf Eichmann, and that Israel did not.[6]
He defended Holocaust denier Paul Rassinier.[7] In 1962, he defended four diplomats: André Mattei, Jean-Paul Bellivier, Henri Mouton, and André Miquel accused of espionage by the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser[8] who were freed after the intervention of Hassan II, the King of Morocco, and Henri, the Count of Paris.[9] On May 26, 1967, he wrote a guest column about the legal status of the Gulf of Aqaba on the eve of the Six-Day War.[10]
In 1978, he defended Fernand Sorlot, accused of having re-published Mein Kampf. He argued in court that Adolf Hitler's book was a historical document, which should, as such, be freely available.[11]
On October 22, 1981, he defended Paul Touvier, accused of crimes against humanity. He spoke of Touvier's "evasion" of his responsibilities and his "manifest cowardice".[12] In the same year, he defended Jean Bedel Bokassa[13] and spoke about practices "contrary to his ethical principles",[14]
On August 10, 1982, Geouffre de La Pradelle wrote a guest column, after the Israeli military intervention in Lebanon in 1982, concerning the case law prohibiting the bombing of buildings and civilian populations.[15]