PARIS -- Frail but now a free man, wartime collaborator Maurice Papon walked out of prison Wednesday and into a storm of public outrage after judges ruled him too old and sick to finish his 10-year sentence for helping send Jews to Nazi death camps.

To victims of France's wartime regime and their families, the decision by appeals court judges to release the 92-year-old Papon after serving less than three years of his sentence erased the huge moral victory they won with his 1998 conviction.

After the longest trial in French history, Papon was convicted for complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in deporting 1,690 Jews to Germany as second-in-command of Bordeaux area police. Most were sent to the Auschwitz death camp and only a few survived.

Papon fled to Switzerland after his conviction, but was arrested and began serving his sentence in October 1999.

"I can't believe this is happening," said Colette Guttman, as she watched Papon shuffle out of Paris' La Sante prison into a waiting car. "My father, my mother and my uncle were killed at Auschwitz because of people like Papon, who now have the right to rest in their old age."

Papon's attorneys hailed his release as "a great victory."

Ethics debate

Papon had triple coronary bypass surgery several years ago and has a pacemaker. His imprisonment set off a debate about the ethics of jailing the elderly.

Jewish groups accused France of turning its back on Holocaust victims.

"We had fought so hard so he would stay in prison," said Serge Klarsfeld, a Nazi hunter and historian who helped produce much of the evidence used at Papon's 1998 trial. His release, he said, "gives a feeling of injustice."

"What I hope is that this sick man doesn't turn out to be healthy," Klarsfeld said.

Israel's Foreign Ministry also expressed regret.

"A man who committed such grave crimes against the Jewish people and humanity ought to end his days in jail," said Israel's deputy foreign minister, Rabbi Michael Melchior.

Papon himself was said to have been incredulous. "He didn't believe it," lawyer Jean-Marc Varaut told reporters outside the prison. "I told him he was free. He said: 'How did it happen?"'

Lawyers said Papon didn't listen to the radio Wednesday morning, so convinced was he that this appeal would fail like all those before. He gathered his prison belongings in stunned silence, including framed photos of his dead wife and Gen. Charles de Gaulle, Varaut said.

Papon, wearing a quilted jacket despite the warm weather, emerged from the prison four hours after the ruling. A few protesters shouted "Papon, assassin." Anti-riot police kept them at a distance as Papon was quickly driven off by lawyers to his family's villa in the town of Gretz-Armainvilliers, east of Paris.

Papon's six-month trial and conviction was seen as France's coming to terms with its painful collaboration with Nazi Germany. He was the most senior official from the pro-Nazi Vichy regime tried for crimes against humanity.

No regret

Papon has said he feels no regret for his wartime acts. His attorney, Varaut, said Wednesday he did not expect Papon to change his mind. "It would be unthinkable for him to express a form of remorse," he said.

Papon argued during his 1998 trial that he was just a middleman and should not be held accountable. He testified he was not actively aiding the Nazis, but was merely a functionary relaying orders from superiors.

During the Nazi occupation, Papon was second in command of Bordeaux police and signed orders that led to the deportation of 1,690 Jews from 1942-1944.

After the war, Papon became Paris police chief in 1958, a post he held until 1967. In 1968 he was elected to parliament, and in 1979 became budget minister under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

Papon's wartime record was revealed in 1981, but his trial did not start until 1997. In 1994, then-President Francois Mitterrand admitted in a television interview he intervened to stall the case.

His attorneys filed a release request this summer, based on a new provision in French law that allows prisoners to be freed if two independent doctors agree they are suffering from a fatal illness, or that their long-term health is jeopardized by imprisonment.

A court rejected the request July 24, but Papon's attorneys appealed.

The three-judge panel that freed Papon on Wednesday said several doctors decided his health was "incompatible with his remaining in detention."

French President Jacques Chirac had previously turned down three requests to pardon Papon. Though Chirac did not comment Wednesday, his center-right government expressed its disapproval of Papon's release.

"We believed that his continued imprisonment was necessary, taking into account the seriousness of the charges against him," said Justice Minister Dominique Perben.

Lawyers said Papon will not be subjected to any surveillance but will have to inform a judge when he leaves his residence, an elegant but decaying mansion outside of Paris.

The Paris prosecutor's office said it will not appeal the court's decision to free him, judicial officials said.