2024-07-30 09:44:23
The 38-year-old priest allegedly admitted to manufacturing methamphetamine and reselling it in Lower Austria. Responding to APA’s request on Tuesday, police spokesman Stefan Loidl announced that the second defendant was a 30-year-old Iraqi from Vienna. The man partially admitted. Both men were held in pretrial detention.
Although the 38-year-old man had been working in the parish of St. Pölten since 2021, it is unlikely that the possible accomplice was someone from church circles, Lower Austria ORF reported. The case came to light last week when the Krems prosecutor’s office ordered a search of the affected vicarage. Drug precursors and laboratory equipment were discovered and seized.
A statement from the Diocese of St. Pelten said the priest was “immediately relieved of his duties in the Diocese of St. Pelten” and “banned from any pastoral activity in the diocese.” The man of God is a priest of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, which in turn promised further measures.
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