Serbian Patriarchate Priest on Trial For Beating Drug Patient to Death
(source) While a Serbian Orthodox priest accused of killing a patient at a rehab centre is scheduled to appear in court, other drug addicts have abandoned the church-run addiction treatment facility.
Branislav Peranovic, a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church, is due to appear in court in the eastern Serbian town of Sabac on Wednesday afternoon. The priest, accused of murdering a drug addict, is currently held in custody, claiming the right to remain silent in the absence of his lawyer.
On Monday night, Peranovic killed a 39-year-old man at the church-run rehabilitation centre, ‘Sretenje,’ in the village of Jadranska Lesnica, by hitting him in the head with a bar.
A fellow-patient, 25-year old Ljubodrag Njagojev, says he heard horrible noise coming from a nearby house where the man was killed. “Noise was coming from all sides, I heard the sounds of something breaking and cries for help. Then a silence came and later we heard the ambulance sirens and the police,” Njagojev told the Serbian daily newspaper Press.
According to Njagojev, the residents learned of the tragedy the next morning.
Soon after, as many as 50 residents of the clerical-run rehab centre left the institution.
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