ANGOP International
Agencia AngolaPress
1/6/11 5:01 PM
Brussels
Belgian authorities are seeking to expel a Canadian priest accused of sexually abusing Inuit children.
The Reverend Eric Dejaeger, a Belgian native, is wanted in Canada on warrants involving alleged crimes against Inuit children more than 30 years ago.
Father Dejaeger, a 63-year-old Canadian citizen, was arrested and charged in Belgium with overstaying a visa.
Warrants were issued in Nunavut territory in 2002 for his arrest.
Interpol has also issued a warrant.
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A Canadian priest wanted by Interpol expelled from Belgium
Radio-Canada (this is the google translation of article at http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2011/01/05/002-belgique-pretre-pedophilie.shtml)
Updated Wednesday, January 5, 2011 to 22 h 03
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Belgian authorities plan to expel a Canadian priest who faces charges of sexual assault in Canada’s Inuit children.
An arrest warrant had been launched in Canada in 2002 against Eric Dejaeger for sex crimes committed in Igloolik, 30 years ago.
Mr. Dejaeger, a Belgian, had obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1994. The man, now aged 63, was on the wanted list through Interpol.
He is currently detained in a center for illegal residents in Bruges, and he should be extradited to Canada in the next few weeks. It could, however, to appeal the extradition order, said an official at the Belgian embassy in Canada.
Mr. Dejaeger was ordained a Catholic priest in Canada before being sent to the Arctic, where he was a missionary in several villages.
According to documents submitted to the court, he pleaded guilty in 1990 to nine counts of sexual crimes committed against boys and girls Inuit of Baker Lake, Nunavut village.
Mr. Dejaeger was sentenced to five years in prison for crimes committed between 1982 and 1989 on two boys who sometimes spent the night at the residence of the missionaries. Then in 2002, an arrest warrant was issued against him, this time in connection with alleged sex crimes committed between 1978 and 1982 on children in the village of Igloolik, in the north-west Hudson Bay. Dejaeger however, had already left Canada.
Radio-Canada.ca with Canadian Press