Reuters
BRUSSELS | Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:32pm IST
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A Belgian priest wanted in Canada on allegations of child sexual abuse made contact with justice authorities in Belgium on Monday in a move that could lead to his extradition.
Eric Dejaeger, 63, is on Interpol’s international list of wanted people based on a warrant for “crimes against children” issued by authorities in Igloolik, an island in the far north of Canada.
Prosecutors in the Belgian city of Leuven said Dejaeger had telephoned them early on Monday and that local police had taken him away for questioning.
The prosecutors said in a short statement they had asked the Canadian authorities for further information. There is no extradition request from Canada, so Dejaeger was free to return to the abbey south of Leuven where he is living.
Interpol says Dejaeger has joint Belgian and Canadian nationalities.
He is not connected to revelations of abuse by priests committed in Belgium that have rocked the Church and forced the resignation of a bishop who admitted abusing his nephew.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)
____________________
Police question Belgian priest wanted in Canada abuse probe
Vancouver Sun
AFP September 13, 2010
BRUSSELS – Police questioned a convicted Belgian priest who faces complaints of sexual abuse in Canada, but stopped short of an arrest in the absence of extradition moves, a judicial source said Monday.
Eric Dejaeger, 63, a Flemish priest who worked as a missionary with Inuits in the 1970s, was sentenced in 1990 to five years behind bars for the rape of eight children before being released after 18 months.
Fresh allegations emerged in 1995, leading to Dejaeger’s return to Belgium last year, and he contacted police in Louvain, near Brusssels, on Monday morning, after which he was interviewed, a spokesman for prosecutors said.
The official said he was not arrested owing to the “lack of a judicial basis,” or an extradition order, despite being flagged on an Interpol list for the past nine years.
Louvain prosecutors said they had asked Canadian authorities for additional information. Dejaeger had told Belgian media in advance he would give himself up.
Rocked by revelations of 13 suicides among an avalanche of abuse testimony, Belgium’s Catholic Church vowed on Monday to listen to its victims but steered clear of any witch hunt.
__________________________
Comments
__________________________
anonymous
2:14 PM on September 13, 2010
Canadian justice system is really a joke – serving only 18th moths for rape of 6 children! Do we really want him back? what for?
__________________________
PrimeNumbers
11:00 AM on September 13, 2010
Why does anyone still support the Catholic Church?