Court in Caen, France, sentences Lebanese priest Mansur Labki in absentia to 15 years over rape and sexual assault of minors

A French court sentenced the Lebanese priest Mansur Labki to 15 years in prison and ordered that his name be entered on the register of sex offenders. The court ruled in absentia and declared that an arrest warrant issued against him in 2016 would remain in force.

Labki was convicted of two rape charges and one sexual assault charge involving three minors. The offenses were believed to have occurred in the French town of Dover La Delifrand, where he operated an orphanage between 1990 and 1998, and in Paris. The conviction was handed down on Monday, 8 November, by a criminal court in Calvados, in the Normandy region of northern France. It was his first conviction before a criminal court in France.

Labki’s defenders regard him as a spiritual father and a respected figure, pointing to his books, sermons and charitable works. The court’s findings, however, stand in sharp contrast to that image. Those who came forward over the years to accuse him and testify against him in France described lasting trauma, saying he had taken their childhood. The minors’ protection is central to the case, and the court’s ruling reflects that concern (Psalm 82:3).

According to the plaintiffs’ attorney, the case drew on the testimony of about 40 French and Lebanese-French women, including three female plaintiffs whose complaints had not been withdrawn over time. The attorney stated that the earliest known allegations against Labki date to 1975 and the most recent to 2005, between Lebanon and France. The current trial deals only with allegations investigated on French territory. The attorney has worked on the case since 2013, when a French woman filed a complaint before a court in Calvados against a Lebanese priest, alleging he had raped her when she was 13.

Separately, the report states that Labki was convicted by a Vatican tribunal, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which sentenced him in 2012 for sexual assault of three minors. An appeal was confirmed in 2013. The report notes that since 2001 this body has handled cases of sexual abuse of minors that were previously referred to local bishops. Church tribunals cannot impose imprisonment or criminal penalties. The report says such a tribunal treats an offender as a sinner who has violated his vows, rather than as a criminal, and that in the most serious cases it can strip a convicted priest of his priestly rank. The report describes this provision as controversial among those concerned, given the Church’s stated “zero tolerance” policy.

The report also places Labki’s conviction within a wider pattern, listing priests, bishops and cardinals from several countries whose cases have been heard by the same body, some resulting in convictions and others in acquittals. On Church matters in France, complaints about Labki’s conduct in the diocese began in 2011 and were then referred to the Vatican for consideration.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Arabic)