VATICAN CITY
RT
The Vatican has put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Josef Wesolowski, under house arrest ahead of a trial on pedophilia charges. It’s the first time in modern history a senior Vatican official has faced such a serious prosecution.
The Holy See, the Catholic Church jurisdiction in Rome, summoned the cleric last August, following reports that he allegedly sexually abused teenage boys in the Dominican Republic and paid them to masturbate in front of him.
For some time, Wesolowski lived freely in Rome, prompting victims of sexual abuse to voice concerns that he would escape justice, Reuters reported.
The government of the Dominican Republic started a criminal investigation, but did not press charges due to Wesolowski’s diplomatic immunity. Last month, though, a Santo Domingo court considered the possibility of charging him, as Vatican had defrocked him, thus canceling his immunity.
On Tuesday, the office of the Dominican Republic’s attorney general asked for more information from the Vatican on how it made the decision to put Wesolowski under house arrest and start a criminal trial against him before advancing further in the case, AP reported.
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