Dominican Prosecutors Seeks to Extradite Polish Priest Accused of Child Sex Abuse

By Amanda Schiavo
Latin Times
November 1, 2013

http://www.latintimes.com/articles/9839/20131101/dominican-prosecutors-seeks-extradite-polish-priest-accused.htm#.UnWMbfm-2Sp

(PHOTO CREDIT: Reuters) The Pope has stated that he is looking to reform the Catholic Church and is looking to deal with allegations of abuse by its priests.

Prosecutors in the Dominican Republic are looking to extradite a Polish priest accused of sexually molesting seven children. At a news conference on Thursday Oct. 28, Santiago prosecutor Luisa Liranzo announced the Dominican Republic was seeking to extradite Rev. Wojciech Gil, a Roman-Catholic priest who ran a parish in the town of Juncalito for eight years. When the allegations of sexual abuse was first made against Gil, he was in Poland on vacation. The 36-year-old priest has remained in Poland and denies abusing the children.

The BBC is reporting that authorities in the Dominican Republic have found over 80,000 images and videos on his computer. The footage on the priest's computer has been called "inappropriate." Rev. Gil has made phone calls to reporters in the Dominican Republic saying he is not guilty of child molestation. Authorities in the DR reached out to Interpol for help locating the priest. They found Gil last month, but did not arrest him since the Interpol warrant was only for his location.

Liranzo announced at a press conference that they would be indicting Gil for the sexual abuse of the seven children. Accusations against the priest say he would promise the children trips to the beach and to Europe if they dressed in provocative clothing and posed in pictures and appeared in videos. Another allegation says Gil has been abusing one boy for three years. This case will have trouble moving forward if the priest is not returned to the Dominican Republic. This proves to be complicated since there is no extraction treaty between the DR and Poland.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic are also looking for the Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski who was the former ambassador from the Vatican to the DR. The archbishop is also accused of sexual abuse, this time against teenage boys. The Vatican dismissed the archbishop, who is also Polish, from his post when the allegations came to light. Wesolowski's whereabouts are currently unknown.