LEBANON
The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Friends and family of Mansour Labaki, a Lebanese priest convicted of child molestation, called on the Maronite Church to intervene and allow for an appeal. “[We] implore the Maronite Church,” said Bassam Barrak, a journalist and member of the Friends of Labaki Association.
“Our appeal is meant for Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, Beirut Bishop Boulos Matar, Father Labaki’s friends in the priesthood and the father’s students, many of whom have become bishops. We appeal to you one by one,” he added.
Barrak also called on Rai to urge Pope Francis to permit Labaki to appeal his sentence.
Bkirki’s spokesperson told The Daily Star last week that the Maronite Church would not comment on the issue and would not do so in the near future.
Barrak, along with Arz Labaki, the priest’s nephew, and George Nakhle, who spent his childhood under the priest’s custody in France, held a news conference at the Baabdat Municipality to proclaim his innocence.
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