BELGRADE, Serbia — A Serbian Orthodox priest was removed as head of a church-backed drug rehabilitation center today, after a video broadcast on national television showed him beating a patient with a shovel.
Bishop Artemije said he removed Branislav Peranovic from his job leading the Crna Reka center in southern Serbia.
The bishop said the center would be closed if beatings recur, but he stopped short of shutting it down immediately as Serbian Orthodox Church leaders had demanded.
Serbians were shocked by a video posted last week on weekly Vreme’s Web site showing a man beating and kicking a patient who was being held down at the rehab center located on an isolated land plot owned by the Crna Reka monastery.
A second video broadcast Tuesday by Serbia’s B92 television apparently shows Peranovic beating a patient with a shovel.
Earlier media reports have described patients living in poor conditions and completely isolated from the outside world.
Crna Reka priests have said the beatings are a necessary part of the therapy and are carried out with the consent of patients’ parents.
The state prosecutor has launched an investigation into the center, spokesman Tomo Zoric said today.
The Serbian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod ordered Artemije over the weekend to shut down the center altogether.
However, Artemije — who insisted he was unaware of the beatings before seeing the video — said the center would remain open at the parents’ request, but that Peranovic would face punishment.
The bishop appointed Peranovic’s assistant, Father Dejan Jakovljevic, to run the facility. Jakovljevic has publicly approved of the beatings.
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