STRASBOURG, France: French authorities have arrested a fugitive charged with child sex abuse who spent nearly 14 years on the run after escaping US authorities twice, a source close to the case told AFP Friday.
The source said French authorities arrested Michael Wiseman, 51, on November 1 and charged him with sexually assaulting his adopted son, confirming an earlier statement from US police in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he was first arrested in 2008 for sexual exploitation of a minor.
“An investigation is underway in Strasbourg” city in eastern France, the prosecutor’s office told AFP, without providing further details. The source close to the case said authorities were working to determine if he had also harmed his other child, who is eight years old.
The French charges come on top of US arrest warrants issued after Wiseman skipped the country twice to escape prosecution, Scottsdale police said on November 7.
In 2008, he cut off an ankle bracelet and fled to Spain before he was found, extradited and sentenced after pleading guilty, only to escape again in 2012 while on probation.
He was traced to Vietnam, Poland and ultimately France, where he was found living in Kilstett, north of Strasbourg, under a false identity.
During the investigations, US police searches of Wiseman’s email found evidence that he was sexually abusing his 10-year-old adopted child, which the FBI reported to French authorities.
France arrests longtime US fugitive wanted over child sex abuse
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France arrests longtime US fugitive wanted over child sex abuse
- French authorities arrested Wiseman on November 1 and charged him with sexually assaulting his adopted son
- The French charges come on top of US arrest warrants issued after Wiseman skipped the country twice
‘Keep dreaming’: NATO chief says Europe can’t defend itself without US
BRUSSELS: NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Monday Europe cannot defend itself without the United States, in the face of calls for the continent to stand on its own feet after tensions over Greenland.
US President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory — before backing off after talks with Rutte last week.
The diplomatic crisis sparked gave fresh momentum to those advocating for Europe to take a tougher line against Trump and break its military reliance on Washington.
“If anyone thinks here again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US — keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told lawmakers at the European Parliament.
He said that EU countries would have to double defense spending from the five percent NATO target agreed last year to 10 percent and spend “billions and billions” on building nuclear arms.
“You would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella,” Rutte said. “So hey, good luck.”
The former Dutch prime minister insisted that US commitment to NATO’s Article Five mutual defense clause remained “total,” but that the United States expected European countries to keep spending more on their militaries.
“They need a secure Euro-Atlantic, and they also need a secure Europe. So the US has every interest in NATO,” he said.
The NATO head reiterated his repeated praise for Trump for pressuring reluctant European allies to step up defense spending.
He also appeared to knock back a suggestion floated by the EU’s defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius earlier this month for a possible European defense force that could replace US troops on the continent.
“It will make things more complicated. I think Putin will love it. So think again,” Rutte said.
On Greenland, Rutte said he had agreed with Trump that NATO would “take more responsibility for the defense of the Arctic,” but it was up to Greenlandic and Danish authorities to negotiate over US presence on the island.
“I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said.
Rutte reiterated that he had stressed to Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan after the US leader caused outrage by playing down their contribution.
“For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home,” he said.
“I know that America greatly appreciates all the efforts.”
