Raymond de Geouffre de La Pradelle de Leyrat (November 22, 1910 – July 19, 2002) was a French lawyer.
Biography Family Geouffre de La Pradelle's name is derived 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. Castelli and Geouffre de La Pradelle had three children together: Géraud, Arnaud, and Marie-Ange. After getting divorced from Castelli, he married Éliane Puech on June 12, 1972.
Education 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 served as the general secretary of the International Juridical Air Committee from 1952 to 1955, and later became a member of the France-Egypt Association in 1965.
Career Before World War II, Geouffre de La Pradelle took the defense of members of the far-right terrorist organisation La Cagoule. During the German Occupation of France, Geouffre de La Pradelle also defended people prosecuted for taking part in the resistance movement, some of which, like Jacques Foccart, he hid in his home, as well as collaborators following the end of the war, as per the request of the nuncio and future Pope John XXIII, including his uncle Pierre, a municipal councilor, lawyer and magistrate, who was prosecuted for his role as an investigating judge under the Vichy government.Entretien avec Géraud de Geouffre de La Pradelle Dzovinar Kévonian, Philippe Rygiel, Géraud de Geouffre de La Pradelle, in Monde(s), 2015/1 (N° 7), pages 155-172,
In 1949, whilst defending German soldiers prosecuted in French courts, Geouffre de La Pradelle asked Henri Donnedieu de Vabres for clarification on the legal basis of the Nuremberg trials.Allocution de Monsieur le Premier Président de Vincent Lamanda, Revue internationale de droit penale, 2006. 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 alsacienne de constructions mécanique (), as well as the rubber, petroleum, chemical, mechanical and electrical construction, textile and food industries, including five champagne houses.Les entreprises françaises face à l'Allemagne de 1945 à la fin des années 60, de Jean-François Eck, Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique, 2013.
On September 27, 1956, Geouffre de La Pradelle published a guest column on the question of whether Egypt had violated international law during the Suez Crisis.Me de Geouffre de La Pradelle, L'Égypte a-t-elle violé le droit international ?, Le Monde, September 27, 1956. In 1959, in Le Monde, he rejected any Soviet takeover of the Moon after the Moon landing of Luna 2.Raymond de Geouffre de La Pradelle, Un problème nouveau: à qui appartiendra la lune ?, Le Monde, 15 septembre 1959. In 1960, in an article in Le Figaro, he argued that only Germany had jurisdiction to try Adolf Eichmann, and that the State of Israel did not.Henry Torres, Un criminel contre l’humanité, Le Monde Juif, 1961/1-2, (N° 24-25), pages 32-33.
Geouffre de La Pradelle defended Holocaust denier Paul Rassinier, whom he described as "sick of the truth".Paul Rassinier, Le véritable procès Eichmann ou les vainqueurs incorrigibles, Les sept couleurs, 1962, 255 p., . 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 NasserJean-Victor Louis, Le procès des diplomates français au Caire, problèmes juridiques, Annuaire Français de Droit International, Année 1963, 9, pp. 231-258. who were released after the intervention of Hassan II, the King of Morocco, and Henri, the Count of Paris.La monarchie aujourd'hui, de Pierre Pujo, 1988 On May 26, 1967, he wrote a guest column concerning the legal status of the Gulf of Aqaba on the eve of the Six-Day War.Raymond de Geouffre de La Pradelle, Y a-t-il un statut juridique du golfe d'Akaba ?, Le Monde, 26 mai 1967.
In 1974, following the hostage-taking at the French embassy in the Netherlands by the Japanese Red Army, and the day after the attack on a drugstore in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, for which the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal had claimed responsibility, Geouffre de La Pradelle declared that an embassy was not extraterritorial and had immunity. The following year, he defended Patrick de Ribemont, the alleged mastermind, according to Michel Poniatowski, of the assassination of Prince Jean de Broglie, and this time had France condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on 10 February 1995 and 7 August 1996.
In 1978, Geouffre de La Pradelle defended the publisher 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.Emmanuel Debono, Le procès de la réédition de Mein Kampf (1978–1980), Francia. Forschungen zur westeuropäischen Geschichte, Volume 47, 2020, p. 475 et suiv.
On October 22, 1981, Geouffre de La Pradelle defended former militiaman Paul Touvier, accused of crimes against humanity since June 19. He spoke of Touvier's "evasiveness" in the face of his responsibilities and his "manifest cowardice".Le procès de Paul Touvier devant la cour d'assises des Yvelines La déposition de l'ancien avocat de l'accusé " Une attitude de lâcheté manifeste", Le Monde. 6 April 1994. In the same year, he defended Jean Bedel BokassaStephen Smith avec Géraldine Faes, Bokassa Ier un empereur français, éd. Calmann-Lévy, 2000. and spoke about practices "contrary to his ethical principles", after having been questioned for having received 'blank signatures'.Un avocat parisien aurait reçu plusieurs blancs-seings de Bokassa, Le Monde. 25 September 1980.
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.Raymond de Geouffre de la Pradelle, Juger les criminels, Le Monde, 10 August 1982.
Books La monarchie, Éditions internationales, 1944 L'affaire d'Ascq, Éditions internationales, 1949 Le problème de la Silésie et le droit, Éditions internationales, 1958 Aux frontières de l'injustice, Albin Michel, 1979
Bibliography Le sionisme contre Israël, de Nathan Weinstock, 1969 Des hommes libres : histoires extraordinaires de l'histoire, de Jean-Pierre Allali, Haim Musicant, 1986 La monarchie aujourd'hui, de Pierre Pujo, 1988 Bokassa Ier un empereur français, de Stephen Smith, Géraldine Faes, 2000 Dark Age: The Political Odys, de Brian Titley, 2002 Le Théâtre de Satan : décadence du droit, partialité des juges, d'Éric Delcroix, Paris, L'Æncre, 2002. Les entreprises françaises face à l’Allemagne de 1945 à la fin des années 60, de Jean-François Eck, 2013 Paul Touvier et l'Église: Rapport de la commission, de René Rémond, 2014 Comment l'idée vint à M. Rassinier: Naissance du révisionnisme, de Florent Brayard, 2014 L'Affaire Touvier: Quand les archives s'ouvrent, de Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon, 2016 Nobility and patrimony in modern France, d'Elizabeth C. Macknight, 2018
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