The former bishop of Huși, imprisoned for abusing students at the seminary, learned the decision of the Supreme Court on the second appeal of the eight-year prison sentence

The High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected on Thursday the annulment appeal of the former bishop of Huși, Corneliu Bârlădeanu – Cornel Onilă by his civil name – against the sentence to 8 years in prison for the rapes and sexual assaults committed against his students. The decision comes a few days after the Supreme Court admitted in principle Onilă's cassation appeal, another extraordinary way of attack by the former high hierarch.

“Rejects, as inadmissible, the annulment appeal”, the judges of the ICCJ held in the brief solution pronounced on Thursday in the case of Cornel Onilă.

The former bishop of Husi is contesting the 8-year prison sentence to which he was definitively sentenced on April 30 by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. The annulment appeal was the first appeal exercised by Onilă. His request was submitted to the Supreme Court less than a month after the final sentence was handed down.

While waiting for the judgment of the annulment appeal, Onilă also submitted an appeal in cassation to the ÎCCJ. The second extraordinary appeal, registered at the Supreme Court on October 6, was admitted in principle on Tuesday. A panel of 3 judges from the ICCJ will decide on January 20 whether the cassation appeal is also admitted on the merits.

Sexual abuse, revealed after an extensive journalistic investigation

The Bishopric of Husi was at the center of an unprecedented sexual scandal in 2017. Bishop Corneliu Bârlădeanu was blackmailed by three clerics, including Archimandrite Sebastian Jitaru, with compromising video recordings.

Advised by his advisers, Bârlădeanu filed a complaint with the DNA for blackmail. The three clerics, including Archimandrite Jitaru, were sent to court and convicted of blackmail, the investigation initially being limited to this crime only.

The reporters of the independent platform “Let there be light” published at the time that at least one video evidence proving the sexual abuse of the former bishop of Huși, Corneliu Onilă, did not reach the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Iași Court of Appeal.

The journalists detailed how the sexual abuse of seminary students took place even in the cells of the prelates, as well as the testimony of a student from Huși who alleges that he was abused by the priest. Following the revelations, the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Iași Court of Appeal decided to reopen the criminal investigation.

More than 100 rapes were detained in the charge of the former bishop of Husi and his archimandrite.

Corneliu Bârlădeanu retired from office in August 2017. He denied the accusations brought against him, stating, through the lawyer, that the images that incriminate him are fake. Throughout this period he retained his rank as a retired bishop.

More than two months after the conviction for sexual abuse, the Holy Synod of the BOR decided to excommunicate the former bishop of Husi.