Michel Zaoui

A French lawyer (1945–2025) admitted to the Paris bar in 1969, Michel Zaoui was one of the leading attorneys for civil parties in trials for crimes against humanity. He took part in all three of France's major postwar trials — Klaus Barbie (1987), Paul Touvier (1994), and Maurice Papon (1997–1998) — where he helped forge the notion of the "desk crime." President of the LICRA's legal commission from 1999 to 2007, he published Mémoires de justice. Les procès Barbie, Touvier, Papon (Memoirs of Justice: The Barbie, Touvier, and Papon Trials; Seuil, 2009).