A Facebook user arrested on charges of malicious blasphemy and insulting religion appeared before a prosecutor on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old man, who was arrested on Friday at his home in Evia by officers from the police's cybercrime unit, is accused of being behind a satirical Facebook page that poked fun at the cult surrounding a deceased Orthodox monk.
Named Elder Pastitsios, the Facebook page contained doctored photographs of Elder Paisios (1924-1994), replacing his facial characteristics with pastitsio, a traditional Greek dish.
The prosecutor said the man had a criminal case to answer but released him pending trial.
A police statement issued on Monday announcing Friday's arrest said that the cybercrime unit had "recently" spotted the Facebook page after it had received "thousands of electronic complaints from residents from countries all over the world".
The arrest of the man, who works on a farm, came three days after a Golden Dawn MP condemned the Facebook page in a written question to the religious affairs minister.
The MP, Christos Pappas, appealed on the minister to instruct the cybercrime unit to take the page down and prosecute its creator.
According to reports, the man created the satirical Facebook page after a fictitious miracle that he had created about the monk was accepted as fact and republished on religious blogs and newspapers.
Under the penal code, blasphemy is considered a criminal offence. Article 198 says that "anyone who publicly and maliciously and by any means blasphemes God shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years" while article 199 provides a similar sentence for anyone "who publicly and maliciously and by any means blasphemes the Greek Orthodox Church or any other religion tolerable in Greece". (Athens News/dmcu)
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