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Man accused of killing Orthodox priest taken into custody

Investigators had appealed to the court for his arrest and produced materials pointing to the necessity of isolating him from the society

Photo ITAR-TASS / Leo Schlosberg

Photo ITAR-TASS / Leo Schlosberg

PSKOV, August 8 (Itar-Tass) - The Pskov city court ruled on Thursday to take into custody for two months Sergei Pchelintsev, 27, accused of killing a Russian Orthodox parish priest, sources from the Russian Investigative Committee told Tass.

Earlier Pchelintsev, a resident of Moscow and a recent graduate of the State University of Cinematography, was accused of killing Right Reverend Pavel Adelgeim.

“According to the investigators, on August 3 the accused man who knew that Pavel Adelgeim was a theologist and revered church officer, came to Pskov asking to cure him,” Anton Dobrokhotov from the Pskov region investigation department of the Russian Investigative Committee said. Pavel Adelgeim “agreed out of compassion and allowed him live in his home,” he added.

“On August 5, suffering hallucinations the man took a knife in the kitchen and stabbed the priest in the heard,” he added.

“According to medics’ verdict, at the present moment the accused may be kept in a pretrial detention centre on condition he receives medical assistance,” sources from the Russian Investigative Committee said.

They specified that the investigators had appealed to the court for his arrest and produced materials pointing to the necessity of isolating him from the society.

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