Bucharest (Romania): A Romanian priest was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday for causing the death of a nun during an exorcism ritual.
Four nuns were also sentenced in connection with her death.
The nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, believed she heard the devil talking to her. She was treated for schizophrenia, but when she relapsed, Daniel Petru Corogeanu, a monk who served as the priest for the secluded Holy Trinity convent in northeast Romania, and the four other nuns tried exorcism.
Cornici, 23, was tied up for several days without food or water and chained to a cross. She died of dehydration, exhaustion and suffocation.
The court in the northeast city of Vaslui convicted Corogeanu and the nuns of holding Cornici captive, resulting in her death.
One of the nuns, Nicoleta Arcalianu, was sentenced to eight years in prison, and the other three, Adina Cepraga, Elena Otel and Simona Bardanas, received five-year sentences.
Dozens of Corogeanu's supporters packed the courtroom and prayed for the priest, with several bursting into tears when the verdict was announced.
The defendants' lawyers plan to appeal, saying the sentences were too harsh.
Cornici's death stunned Romania and prompted the Orthodox Church to promise reforms, including psychological tests for those seeking to enter monasteries.
The church, which has benefited from a religious revival in recent years, condemned the ritual as ''abominable'' and banned Corogeanu from the priesthood and excommunicated the four nuns from the church.
While Orthodox churches regularly perform exorcism rituals, Corogeanu's methods were seen as excessively harsh.
Church officials noted he had dropped out halfway from the church's religion school. Despite leaving the program, he was anointed as a priest because of a shortage of priests to serve in new convents and monasteries.
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