Vatican: Canada did not seek extradition for diplomat with porn charges

IMAGE: CNS

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Canadian authorities did not request
the extradition of a Vatican diplomat who has been charged by police in Canada
of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography, a Vatican
spokesman said.

“No request for extradition has come from Canada and no
trial has been set at the Vatican” for the diplomat, Msgr. Carlo Capella, who
had been working in the United States, said Greg Burke, Vatican spokesman, in a
written statement Oct. 12.

The Vatican investigation “requires international
collaboration, and it has not ended yet,” he added.

The Italian monsignor, who had been working at the Vatican
nunciature in Washington, was first recalled to the Vatican after the U.S.
State Department notified the Holy See Aug. 21 of his possible violation of
laws relating to child pornography images.

“The Holy See, following the practice of sovereign
states, recalled the priest in question, who is currently in Vatican
City,” the press office said Sept. 15. The press office said that the
Vatican promoter of justice, the chief prosecutor for Vatican City State, had opened
an investigation into the matter and that it had begun “international
collaboration to obtain elements relative to the case.”

Police in Canada then issued a nationwide arrest warrant
Sept. 28 on charges of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography.

“Investigators believe that the offenses occurred while
the suspect was visiting a place of worship in Windsor,” the police statement
said. A spokesman for the Diocese of London, Ontario, which includes Windsor,
confirmed at the time “that it was asked to, and did, assist in an
investigation around suspicions involving Msgr. Capella’s possible violations
of child pornography laws by using a computer address at a local church.”

While the Associated Press had reported that the U.S. State
Department had asked the Vatican to lift the official’s diplomatic immunity and
that that request was denied, the Vatican said no extradition request had come
from Canada.

The latest Vatican statement came after ANSA, the Italian
news agency, cited unnamed sources Oct. 12 saying that Msgr. Capella would not
be extradited to Canada because of the suspect’s diplomatic immunity and that
he would be tried in a Vatican tribunal.

Criminal charges against the Vatican diplomat were made
possible after Pope Francis approved new and expanded criminal laws in 2013, which
are applicable to all Vatican employees around the world. Any direct employee
of the Holy See, which includes those working in a Vatican office or
nunciature, can face a criminal trial at the Vatican as well as face criminal
prosecution in the country where the crimes occurred.

The new amendments, which went into effect in September
2013, brought Vatican law into detailed compliance with several international
treaties like the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Vatican’s
updated laws define and set out penalties for specific crimes against minors,
including child prostitution, sexual violence against children and producing or
possessing child pornography.

 

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