Polish priest charged with murder with particular cruelty over property dispute
A 60-year-old parish priest from the Mazowieckie province has been charged with the murder with particular cruelty of a 68-year-old homeless man whose burned body was found on Thursday, the Radom District Prosecutor's Office told PAP.
The body was discovered on a little-used road in Grojec County, central Poland, by a passer-by who saw a man on fire and noticed a nearby off-road vehicle leaving the scene without its lights on. The victim, identified as Anatol Cz. (surname withheld under Polish privacy law - PAP), could not be saved.
Police traced the car to a parish in the village of Przypki, where they detained Miroslaw M., the local priest, according to Aneta Gozdz, spokesperson for the Radom District Prosecutor's Office.
The priest was brought to the District Prosecutor's Office in Grojec on Saturday. Investigators upgraded the original charge of murder, filed on Friday, to murder with particular cruelty.
"An autopsy showed that the victim suffered burns covering 80 percent of his body and head injuries caused by a sharp-edged heavy object," Gozdz said. A possible murder weapon was recovered at the scene.
According to investigators, the men argued in a car late on Thursday night. As the fight escalated, the priest allegedly pulled out an axe and struck the victim on the head. He is suspected to have subsequently doused the man with flammable liquid and set him on fire while he was still alive, before driving away.
The crime is believed to have stemmed from a donation agreement previously made in favour of the priest. Gozdz said the clergyman had agreed to care for the man and secure him housing in return for the property. The 68-year-old had no permanent home, and the conflict is believed to have concerned the housing.
Prosecutors said the priest has confessed to the crime and expressed remorse.
On Saturday afternoon Gozdz announced that the District Court in Grojec had agreed to the prosecutor's motion for pre-trial detention of the priest, Miroslaw M.
"The prosecutor's office has completed its activities," she said. "The court has applied three-month detention of Miroslaw M."
Przemyslaw Sliwinski, spokesperson for the Warsaw Archdiocese, told PAP that the Church will take appropriate canonical steps.
"If necessary, the detained priest will be suspended from pastoral duties until the matter is resolved," Sliwinski said.
On Saturday afternoon, Sliwinski announced that the Warsaw Metropolitan Bishop Adrian Galbas had asked the Holy See to defrock the priest due to the gravity of the suspected crime and its scandalous social impact.
"The highest penalty in canon law is the highest possible sanction concerning the status of a cleric," Sliwinski said.
Sliwinski also declared that the Church was ready for full cooperation with law enforcement agencies and courts to clear out all circumstances of the crime.(PAP)
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