MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Orthodox Church on Wednesday defrocked a monk and priest who the previous day was convicted of causing a car accident in which two people died.
The priest had been driving a luxury Mercedes G-Class SUV, which sells new in Moscow for upwards of $120,000. He was detained a day after the accident.
On Wednesday, the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Moscow ordered the defrocking, and the Church’s top cleric, Patriarch Kirill, gave his approval, a spokesman said.
Priest Pavel Syomin, ordained as Hieromonk Iliya, lost control of his Mercedes on August 15, 2012, and mowed down three workers on a roadside, killing two of them. On Tuesday he was found guilty of a severe violation of traffic rules, causing the death of two or more persons.
Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence for Syomin, while the defense team requested two years in a minimum security prison.
