MANILA: The Philippine Department of Justice said on Friday it is exploring ways to extradite a former US diplomat to the Philippines after a local court ordered his arrest on charges of sexually abusing a minor during his service in Manila.
Charges of child abuse and child pornography against the former diplomat, 61-year-old Dean Edward Cheves, were filed before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court earlier this month upon a complaint by the victim’s mother.
Cheves was a member of the US Foreign Service serving as first secretary at the US Embassy in Manila between September 2020 and February 2021.
The Pasay court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for him for violating the country’s Child Abuse Law and the Anti-Child Pornography Act.
“We are still studying the feasibility of extradition,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told Arab News. To face prosecution in the Philippines, Cheves needs to be extradited from the US, where he is facing similar charges.
The US Department of Justice earlier this month disclosed that Cheves had been charged by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia with “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and possession of child pornography” while serving in Manila. It remains unclear if the charges Cheves is facing in the US are related to the case registered in the Philippines.
“The US side has not requested any assistance at this time in connection with Dean Cheves’ prosecution in the US,” Guevarra said, adding that authorities are investigating the involvement of “another foreign national involved in the same incidents that led to criminal charges against Chevez.”
Declining to comment on whether the second suspect remains in the Philippines, Guevarra said: “We’ll provide more information after he is arrested.”
According to Pasay court charges, Cheves met the victim, now 16, several times in February. The documents also cite the victim as saying she had been in touch with Cheves online since she was 12 or 13 years old.
Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said the Department of Justice is examining the possibility of “availing the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (with the US) to exchange evidence that may help us in our case against Cheves and may also help in the case against Cheves in the US District Court in Virginia.”
Philippine court orders arrest of former US diplomat in child sexual abuse case
https://arab.news/m27nh
Philippine court orders arrest of former US diplomat in child sexual abuse case
- Dean Edward Cheves is also facing child pornography charges in the US for his crimes while serving in Manila
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
