Court frees monk, nuns charged with exorcism death

A court has freed a monk and four nuns who are charged with killing a nun last month during an exorcism ritual, authorities in Romania said today.

The Appeals Court in Bucharest refused to extend arrest warrants against the suspects and ordered them to be freed, the court said in a statement.

The statement did not elaborate, but news television N24 reported that appeals judges cited procedural errors by a lower court. The five were freed from a Bucharest jail late yesterday. Today they were questioned by interrogators in the capital.

Maricica Irina Cornici, 23, died on June 15 at the secluded Holy Trinity convent in the north-east Romanian village of Tanacu, after she was tied up for several days without food or water and chained to a cross during an exorcism ritual.

Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 29, a monk who served as the convent’s priest and led the exorcism, and four nuns are charged with murder and denying a person’s freedom.

Corogeanu has claimed that Cornici was possessed by devils and she had to be tied to her bed with towels because she had become violent, and that she refused to eat or drink.

He has said he performed the ritual at the request of her brother, who was unhappy with doctors’ failure to cure his sister from her mental problems.

Weeks before her death, Cornici had been treated at a local hospital for schizophrenia. Despite the ruling freeing the suspects, the charges against them remain in effect. If convicted, they face up to 25 years in prison.

Cornici’s death has stunned Romania and has prompted the Orthodox Church to promise reforms, including psychological tests for those seeking to enter monasteries.

The church, which has benefited from a religious revival in recent years, has condemned the Tanacu ritual as ”abominable” and has banned Corogeanu from the priesthood and excluded the four nuns from the church.