FLOGGING WOMEN IN POLAND

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

FLOGGING WOMEN IN POLAND

SENTENCE ON A PRIEST.

The trial bfcgan on February 31 In the Criminal Section of the District Court of Father Belakievicz, the Catholic priest at Kovnuo, in Russian Poland, who is charged with, having, in his fanatical seal, scourged and maltreated some of his female parishioners as a punishment for their errors. The women, It was alleged, were taken down into the vaults of the church, where, apart from the physical chastisement inflicted on •them, their superstitious fears were practised upon toy means of apparitions representing Death and the Devil. The , Minister of Justice himself was present in court, and a large number of witnesses *aa been summoned. The public were excluded from the proceedings-. The trial was concluded on February 23. The accused was found 'Guilty' of having arbitrarily deprived eight persons of their personal -freedom by using force against them. In five cases extenuating circumstances were allowed, and, the prisoner ■*as sentenced to deprivation of. the special rights and privileges attaching to his tank and position, and was ordered.to Wttle in the Government of Irkutsk. He 1* not to leave even temporarily the place «* residence assigned to him before the •xpiration of two years, and is also prohibited from choosing any other perman.«nt residence in any other part of Siberia *»f the period of eight years-