Two monks from embattled monastery to be imprisoned

In a ruling published at midnight on Friday, a Thessaloniki court ordered the incarceration of two monks from the semi-autonomous monastic community on Mount Athos.

The two monks are from the Esphigmenou Monatsery, which has been involved in a years-old dispute with the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, and whose monks have defied court orders to leave the monastery and allow church-appointed replacements to take over the site.

The two monks were found guilty of throwing Molotov cocktails at court-appointed bailiffs who attempted to execute an eviction order at the monastery's administrative offices in Karyes in July 2013.