A priest of the priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (SSPX), sentenced in December 2017 in Belgium to 5 years in prison, including two suspended, for sexual abuse on a boy of 9 years old in a boarding school of the brotherhood, located in Brussels, has still not served his sentence. It comes, however, to be stopped in the canton of Valais, a canton of southern Switzerland, according to information released Saturday evening by the swiss daily, Le Nouvelliste.
An administrative problem is involved in the transfer of the execution of the sentence in Switzerland, in accordance with the request of the religious. Sophie Van Bree, spokeswoman of the court of first instance of Brussels, explains that the case went on appeal, but that there would have been no immediate arrest at the time. The court of enforcement of sentences advance that this is not his responsibility since the death penalty is not executed in Belgium. Concerning the execution of a sentence, it is, according to the latter, the public prosecutor who is competent.
The daily le Nouvelliste reports that in Sion (capital of the canton of Valais), the cantonal enforcement of sentences and measures had not trace of a transfer request in progress for the execution of his sentence in Switzerland, it is never part of Belgium.
It is the result of the publication of a first article on Friday that the swiss authorities arrested the priest and have made contact with the belgian justice to clarify the situation. The man has been remanded in custody pending a request for execution of the sentence by Belgium. “I am very pleased that in the space of a few hours we were able to take the necessary actions and to place that person in custody“, told the Nouvelliste State councillor Frédéric Favre, in charge of security in the canton of Valais. “This required a huge work of clarification of the situation and the legal possibilities existing.“
If he has always proclaimed his innocence, the priest had been the subject of a report to child sexual abuse with the brotherhood in 2005, after a summer camp for young people in the canton of Valais, according to the daily. The internal investigation had been closed due to lack of evidence. The abbé Christian Thouvenot, secretary-general of the FSSPX, has assured the newspaper Le Nouvelliste that “since 2006, any member of the FSSPX, was convicted and sentenced on the criminal case is returned to the company“and that the convicted priest in question here is subject to exclusion.
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