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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2006 
Report: Mexican Priest to Stand Trial
 Associated Press
| | Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera attends a mass in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, September 21, 2006. The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a U.S.-based group helped filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday that accused Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Mexico City's Cardinal Norberto Rivera of allowing a priest wanted for multiple sex abuse to flee California for Mexico. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo) |
A judge in the central Mexico state of Puebla ordered a Roman Catholic priest to stand trial in the rape of a 9-year-old boy in 1999, Mexican daily Reforma reported Saturday.
The judge, Emma Peralta, was not immediately available to confirm the ruling issued Friday. About 50 parishioners gathered outside the court building to support jailed priest Rafael Perez Sanchez, who was arrested on Sept. 30 in the community of San Rafael Tlanalapan, where he officiated.
A person who answered the phone at the offices of the Archdiocese of Puebla said no one was immediately available to comment on the charges.
Mexican law does not permit bail for those accused of serious crimes; rape is punishable by prison terms of eight to 40 years.
Perez Sanchez, whose age was not given, is accused in the rape of a minor at the priest's residence over the Christmas holidays in 1999.
The boy's mother and father were good friends with Perez, and as a result, the minor initially was afraid to tell them what happened, police said. He finally did in 2003, and his parents immediately filed a complaint. A judge did not issue an arrest warrant until last year.
Perez's detention comes amid a similar scandal involving a second Mexican priest from Puebla, the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar. A 25-year-old Mexican man has accused Aguilar of raping him when he was a teenager in 1994. The priest also has been charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child. He is still at large.
His alleged Mexican victim, Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, also filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Sept. 19 accusing Mexican Roman Catholic Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony of conspiring to protect the Rev. Aguilar. Both cardinals have denied the accusations. |
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