ATHENS – Greek police apprehended a 45-year-old priest at a bus station in the central city of Larissa as he was allegedly trying to get away from facing a court going to re-sentence him for stealing 3.8 million euros ($4.2 million.)

Although suspects in cases aren’t generally allowed to be named in Greece, they are when convicted but his name wasn’t given although Kathimerini said police tracked him down after he failed to appear at an Appeals Court.

According to reports, he was with his wife when he was detained after fleeing because he wasn’t in police custody during a re-trial in a case in which three other defendants had been released.

He had served eight years in prison after being convicted to life in 2020 for embezzling funds from the Greek state by skimming off the payroll accounts of the Metropolitan Church of Thessaly, the report also said.

Larissa’s Court of Appeals reduced the sentence to 15 years, with time served, after ruling that there were insufficient grounds to convict the priest of the crimes of forgery and money-laundering but it wasn’t said what sentence he was again facing or would be released.