PSKOV, November 20 (RIA Novosti) – A man suspected of murdering a Russian Orthodox priest that recently came to prominence for his defense of jailed anti-Kremlin punk rockers has been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial, investigators said Wednesday.
Pavel Adelgeim, who was 75 at the time of his killing, was found with stab wounds to his chest in early August at his home in the northwestern city of Pskov.
Police shortly afterwards arrested a 27-year old Moscow film school graduate, Sergei Pchelintsev, who had been staying at Adelgeim’s home.
Investigators say they believe Pchelintsev was suffering from hallucinations and that he behaved oddly after being detained.
Police said Pchelintsev wounded himself with a knife after his arrest and said he had been ordered to kill Adelgeim by the devil.
Investigative Committee official Sergei Sonichev said psychiatric experts in Moscow had diagnosed Pchelintsev “with a mental disorder that makes him unfit to stand trial.”
Adelgeim spoke out regularly against the leadership of the Orthodox Church, criticizing it for what he described as its inappropriately close relationship with the Kremlin.
He had been involved in a long-running dispute with the leadership of the local clerical authorities, which had stripped him of several positions.
Adelgeim in 2012 also criticized the arrest of three members of the Pussy Riot punk band for their raucous anti-Kremlin performance, saying it had exposed the church’s ties to the state.
