Papon applied for release on the grounds of poor health in March 2000, but President Jacques Chirac denied the petition three times.
Relatives of Papon's victims and human rights NGOs pointed out that many other detainees did not benefit from that law (including detainees in terminal stages of AIDS, or Nathalie Ménigon, a member of Action Directe still imprisoned , despite suffering from partial hemiplegia, etc.) .