{"id":4839,"date":"2025-05-02T09:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T09:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=4839"},"modified":"2025-05-02T09:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T09:01:08","slug":"romanian-high-court-upholds-prison-sentence-for-former-bishop-in-sexual-abuse-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=4839","title":{"rendered":"Romanian High Court upholds prison sentence for former bishop in sexual abuse case"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) has issued final prison sentences in a high-profile sexual abuse case involving former clergy from the Orthodox Church. On Wednesday, April 30, the judges upheld the eight-year sentence for former bishop of Hu\u0219i, Corneliu Onil\u0103, and sentenced former archimandrite Sebastian Jitaru to 14 years and two months in prison for multiple counts of rape and sexual assault against seminary students, News.ro<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

The crimes were committed at the \u201cIoan Gur\u0103 de Aur\u201d Theological Seminary in Hu\u0219i, where both men held influential positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jitaru was found guilty of repeatedly raping three students over several years, including one victim he assaulted at least nine times in a single year. Another was abused over a two-year period, sometimes twice a week. Onil\u0103 was convicted of abusing one of the same boys and was tried alongside Jitaru.<\/p>\n

The court also ruled that Jitaru could not approach or contact the victims and barred him from serving as a priest for five years after his release.<\/p>\n

Journalists from the investigative platform S\u0103 fie lumin\u0103<\/a>\u00a0were the first to reveal the full extent of the abuse and its systematic cover-up, accusing church authorities of silent complicity. The case marked a historic first for the Romanian Orthodox Church. It was the first time a bishop had been prosecuted for rape, and the first time a diocese – the Diocese of Hu\u0219i – was held civilly liable in court for sexual abuse committed by its leadership.<\/p>\n

In response to the court ruling, the Diocese of Hu\u0219i issued a statement<\/a> acknowledging the convictions and confirming that it severed all ties with Onil\u0103 and Jitaru back in August 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deeply regret the suffering caused to the victims, as well as the scandal generated by this unimaginable case,\u201d the diocese said, adding that the crimes were made even worse by the fact that the perpetrators were meant to be moral and spiritual leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The church reiterated that institutions should not be judged by the actions of individuals, no matter their past roles or how they presented themselves.<\/p>\n

irina.marica@romania-insider.com<\/p>\n

(Photo source: K<\/a>hwaneigq\/Dreamstime.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) has issued final prison sentences in a high-profile sexual abuse case involving former clergy from the Orthodox Church. On Wednesday, April 30, the judges upheld the eight-year sentence for former bishop of Hu\u0219i, Corneliu Onil\u0103, and sentenced former archimandrite Sebastian Jitaru to 14 years and two months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}