Bucharest, Romania - A Romanian monk and four nuns have been charged with murder after a nun died during an exorcism ritual in which she was apparently crucified in a case which has sparked outrage and angry scenes in Romania in the last week.
Daniel Petre Corogeanu and four nuns were charged with depriving a person of liberty and aggravated murder after testifying for 11 hours to prosecutors. They were later detained by police, said prosecutor Ovidiu Berinde.
Maricica Irina Cornici, a 23-year-old nun died last week in the Holy Trinity convent just outside the village of Tanacu in a remote region in northeast Romania after she was allegedly bound to a cross, left in a cold room, had a towel stuffed into her mouth and deprived of food for three days.
There were angry scenes outside the courthouse in the northeast city of Vaslui yesterday, in one of Romania’s remotest and poorest regions near the border with Moldova.
Corogeanu, a red-bearded 29-year-old monk, was jostled by shrieking locals calling for justice saying he had brought the Orthodox Church into disrepute. Others crammed against iron railings outside the prosecutor’s office, claiming the monk and nuns were innocent.
Amid heated local passions, Corgeanu’s attorney Luana Pintilie Thursday called for the case to be moved to the city of Iasi. The court in Vasului refused.
“Magistrates should not have pressure from the street, locals and the media who are camped outside the prosecutor’s door,” she said, adding if there was a trial in Iasi “peasants will not have the money to come to Iasi,” she said.
On Sunday, the five were charged in connection with causing the nun’s death but were not detained, pending the results of a second autopsy.
Corogeanu has been suspended by the church and the convent has been closed by the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Corogeanu has appeared to be unrepentant. When he performed a funeral service for the dead nun on Sunday, he said he was trying to take devils out of the woman.
When asked whether the nun was mentally ill and in need of medical help instead of exorcism, he responded: “You can’t take the devil out of people with pills. You cure (possession by) the devils with fasting and prayer.”
He added the nun had to be restrained because she was violent, but denied that she was starved.
If found guilty, the monk and the nuns could face 25 years in prison.