The tomb of former French justice minister Robert Badinter — who will be inducted into France’s Panthéon national monument on Thursday — has been vandalized in a cemetery near Paris, officials said.

Badinter, who died last year at 95, was celebrated for leading the abolition of the death penalty in France, as well as championing human rights, fighting antisemitism, and decriminalizing homosexuality.

Marie-Hélène Amiable, mayor of Bagneux — the Paris suburb where Badinter was buried — said she was informed Thursday that his tomb had been defaced with graffiti.
“The inscriptions discovered by the police denounce his commitments against the death penalty and in favor of the decriminalization of homosexuality,” Amiable said. “They are unworthy of this former minister and senator, who achieved historic progress by abolishing the death penalty in 1981 and decriminalizing homosexuality in 1982.”

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the desecration on X, writing, “Shame on those who sought to tarnish his memory.”
“This evening, he will enter the Panthéon, the eternal home of conscience and justice,” Macron added. “The Republic is always stronger than hatred.”

A prominent lawyer and philosopher, Badinter became France’s leading voice against capital punishment after witnessing one of his clients executed by guillotine in the 1970s. As justice minister under President François Mitterrand, he successfully persuaded parliament to abolish the death penalty in 1981 despite public resistance.

Born in Paris in 1928 to a Jewish family, Badinter experienced Nazi persecution during World War II and lost his father at the Sobibor death camp. Later, he built his reputation defending human rights and prosecuting Holocaust denial.

He went on to head France’s Constitutional Court and served as a senator for 16 years, earning a reputation as a moral guide for the nation.

Badinter will rest among France’s most revered figures at the Panthéon — alongside Voltaire, Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, and Resistance hero Jean Moulin.