The two Avakoum monastery monks, Nektarios and Porfyrios, did not answer to the charges they are facing on Thursday and proceedings have been postponed till January 21, 2025, after the defence requested further details on Wednesday regarding the charges.
The monks appeared before the Nicosia criminal court on Thursday, to answer to charges of money laundering and defrauding.
The defence lawyers said that if the charges remained in their current form, an objection against their complexity would be raised.
The court adjourned till January 21, 2025, when the monks will be called again to answer to the charges.
The Holy Synod had already ruled in favour of upholding the disgraced monks’ defrocking.
Charges brought to the religious court and listed in its latest ruling, include lewdness, “sodomy, impurity, and cohabitation”, posting and distributing indecent photos, “acts of solicitation”, fraud and misleading believers with false miracles.
According to the verdict, Nektarios, the apparent ringleader of the whole ignominious affair, went so far as to pretend that Saint Avakoum had taken over his body, faking his voice, and also faked fainting after “exorcisms” – all to extort money from believers.
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