Italian envoy’s motion to drop child raps denied

MANILA, Philippines - The criminal cases against an Italian diplomat detained for alleged abuse of three minors last April will proceed.

This developed after the regional trial court of Biñan City, Laguna rejected the plea of former Italian envoy to Turkmenistan Daniele Bosio for the immediate dismissal of the charges of child abuse and human trafficking filed by government prosecutors against him last month.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, chief of the prosecutorial arm of the Department of Justice (DOJ), said Bosio filed a motion for judicial determination of probable cause asking the court to reverse the findings of investigating city prosecutor Agripino Baybay III. 

Baybay said the court set Bosio’s arraignment on June 18.

The prosecutors rejected Bosio’s defense that he was just performing his social and moral duties in taking custody of the three street children aged 9, 10, and 12 and bathing them in his condominium unit in Quezon City.

Last April 5, police arrested Bosio at a resort in Laguna after they were alerted by members of Bahay Tuluyan that Bosio checked in the resort with three children.