France Promotes Wrongly Convicted Soldier After 130 Years

France has given a special promotion to a soldier who died almost 90 years ago. Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly convicted of a serious crime in 1894. Now, he is a general.

The False Accusation

Dreyfus was 36 years old when his problems started. He was a captain in the French army. He was also Jewish. In October 1894, someone found a document in a German diplomat's trash. It had secret information about French military equipment.

Army leaders said Dreyfus wrote the document. They compared the handwriting. But they were wrong. At that time, many people in France did not like Jewish people. Newspapers wrote terrible things about Dreyfus.

Prison and Investigation

A court found Dreyfus guilty of treason. This means giving secrets to another country. They sent him to Devil's Island, a prison in French Guiana. The conditions there were very bad. The army also took away his rank in a public ceremony.

But some people did not believe Dreyfus was guilty. An officer named Georges Picquart looked at the case again. He found that another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, really wrote the document. When Picquart told his bosses, they sent him to prison too!

Freedom and Justice

The famous writer Emile Zola helped Dreyfus. He wrote a letter called "J'accuse" that made many people angry at the government. After 12 years of fighting, Dreyfus was finally cleared in 1906. He returned to the army as a major.

Today's Decision

President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu signed a new law on Monday. It makes Dreyfus a brigadier general. Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal led the effort. He said Dreyfus would have reached high ranks if people had treated him fairly.

The law also sends a message about fighting hate today. France has seen more attacks against Jewish people recently. The government wants to show that fighting against hate is still important.