Despite accusations of sexual assault, France refuses the extradition of priest Joannes Rivoire – archyde

The Ministry of Justice unsurprisingly explained on Tuesday to a delegation of Inuit who came to France that it refused the extradition, requested by Canada, of the French priest Joannes Rivoire, when they had come to Paris to support this request. Joannes Rivoire, 92, who resides in Lyon, but also has Canadian nationality, is the subject of an extradition request filed in early August by Ottawa. He is accused of sexual assaults on young Inuit in the 1960s when he was on a mission in the Canadian Far North, accusations which he disputes. “It was recalled that, in accordance with its constitutional tradition, France does not does not extradite its nationals,” said the Chancellery after the meeting with Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti’s diplomacy adviser. “Nevertheless, in close relation with Canada, France has requested all the elements allowing the facts to be established and the limitation period for public action to be interrupted”, it was added. France is ready for a “request for mutual assistance” The Chancellery emphasizes that “France stands ready to respond to any request for mutual legal assistance made by Canada or, if necessary, to act within the framework of a denunciation of the facts that would be formulated, subject nevertheless to examining the possible prescription of the facts”. “For a judicial investigation to be opened in France, the Canadian judicial authorities must denounce the facts, which is not the case at this stage “, also indicated a source close to the file. So far the priest, who left Canada in 1993 after 33 years in the field, has never been worried. After a first arrest warrant between 1998 and 2017 for the sexual assault of three minors, he has been the subject of a second arrest warrant in Canada since February, after the filing of a new complaint in September 2021 for an assault. sexual violence that occurred approximately 47 years ago. A “commission of historians” soon to be in place? assistant to the head of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), a congregation to which Joannes Rivoire belongs. . For her part, she indicated that she had proposed that a “commission of historians” be created to establish the “functionings and dysfunctions” that may have taken place within the Oblates, to collect all possible documents, this “in connection narrow” or “with the approval of the Inuit community”. On Wednesday, the Inuit delegation met, at the headquarters of the congregation in Lyon, the person in charge of the OMI. Joannes Rivoire, “for the moment agrees to see the delegation”, according to Véronique Margron.