ROME
Leading the Charge
Staff and agencies
11 November, 2005
Fri Nov 11,10:18 AM ET
ROME - The lawyer for a fugitive American priest wanted in the United States on charges of sexually molesting boys urged an Italian court on Friday not to send his client home because he risked being killed in prison.
Father Joseph Henn, 56, wanted by authorities in Arizona since 2003, has been living under house arrest at the headquarters of his religious order in Rome.
"If he is extradited to America he risks his life because prisoners in Arizona do not like priests accused of paedophilia," the lawyer, Michele Gentiloni Silverij, told reporters at an extradition hearing.
Henn, who has dismissed the charges against him, was not present at the hearing.