The 92 -year -old priest is accused of having abused young Inuit in the Far North Canadian in the 1970s. Ottawa said to explore other tracks.
Le Monde With AFP
The extradition request made by Canada against Father Johannes Rivoire, accused of sexual assault on young Inuit in the 1970s while he was on a mission in the Far North Canadian, was rejected , Wednesday October 26, by France.
The Canada Criminal Prosecution Service (SPPC) explains in a press release that the French government refused the request because French law prohibits the extradition of its own citizens and that it “has passed too much time between events and the deposit of accusations “. This last point also prevents the French authorities from continuing Father Rivoire in France, specifies the press release.
The Franco-Canadian priest, who currently lives at 92 in a retirement home in Lyon, is targeted by a Canadian arrest warrant for having sexually assaulted a child in the Canadian Arctic between January 1974 and December 1979. The religious had already been targeted by a first arrest warrant between 1998 and 2017 for sexual assault against three minors.
allegations new denied in September
For his part, Johannes Rivoire had again denied all the allegations during a meeting organized in September with a delegation of Inuit who came to support the extradition request in France.
“All possible legal remedies to obtain the extradition of Johannes Rivoire de France or its prosecution in this State are exhausted”, concluded the SPPC.
The Canadian Minister of Couronne-Aautochtones, Marc Miller, said in a tweet that he was” sorry to see this serious injustice reproduce “, while stressing that there were still avenues that could lead to the arrest of Father Rivoire. The SPPC specifies that he is working in concert with the federal police so that Interpol broadcasts a wanted notice that can lead to the arrest of Johannes Rivoire in another country.