Timor-Leste postpones ex-priest s sex abuse trial again
Covid-19 lockdown prevents Richard Daschbach and lawyers from traveling to the courthouse
Richard Daschbach waves from a police van before the start of his trial on Feb. 22. (Photo: YouTube)
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a district court in Timor-Leste to postpone the resumption of a trial of an ex-priest accused of sexually abusing children for the third time.
The trial of Richard Daschbach, 84, an American national and former Divine Word priest, was originally scheduled to resume on May 24 in a court in Oecusse, Timor-Leste’s small coastal enclave surrounded on three sides by Indonesia, located 200 kilometers west of the capital Dili.