ATHENS – The controversial Bishop Amvrosios of Kalavryta who was found guilty last January of “incitement to hatred and abuse of ecclesiastical office by an appeal court in the Peloponnesian town of Aigio for advising followers to ‘spit’ on gay people,” has been recommended for partial acquittal by the Deputy Prosecutor Panagiotis Brakoumatsos on January 28 in a Supreme Court appeal, Kathemerini reported.

“Do not go near them! Do not listen to them! Do not trust them! They are the damned members of society!” Amvrosios posted online in 2015, during the Parliament debate on the legalization of same-sex unions, Kathemerini reported, adding that the bishop went on to “describe homosexuals as ‘monstrosities of nature.’”

Amvrosios “was convicted to a commuted sentence of seven months and charged a fine of 10,000 euros,” for “inciting hate and abusing his position” with the homophobic rant but Brakoumatsos “cited more lenient provisions under the country’s new criminal code to seek the cleric’s acquittal for abuse of power but also maintained that the court should uphold his conviction for a hate crime,” Kathemerini reported.