FRANCE
Agence France Presse via Barron’s
July 23, 2020
Pope Francis’s former ambassador to France, Luigi Ventura, will stand trial for sex assault in Paris in November following complaints by four men, one of whom accused the cleric of inappropriate touching, lawyers said Thursday.
Ventura, an Italian-born archbishop, was stripped of his diplomatic immunity by the Vatican last July after he was questioned by French police, and resigned in December when he reached the 75-year age limit for his post.
His trial will open on November 10, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
“He will be present,” Ventura’s lawyer Bertrand Ollivier told AFP. “He will attend the hearing to defend his honour and innocence.”
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