A defrocked monk who held the title of Archimandrite Nektarios has filed a complaint with the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection over audiovisual material of him that has been run by TV news channels and other media in recent days, it was reported on Monday.

Nektarios, whose birth name is Ioannis Georgiou, is one of three monks involved in the scandal at the Osios Avakoum monastery in Fterikoudi that led to the defrocking and also to a host of criminal charges brought against two of the monks for alleged money laundering and fraud.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, Nektarios filed his complaint on Monday through his lawyers seeking to limit the use of his personal data and the right to seek the deletion of specific “unauthorised audiovisual material” from the media and the internet.

The lawyers say the material violates the constitutionally-guaranteed right to the protection of privacy independently and/or in combination with the right to privacy as regards a person’s religion.

“The transmission and retransmission, therefore, of visual and audio material from closed-circuit surveillance systems without the consent of the individuals under surveillance is prohibited,” the complaint filed with the commissioner noted.

“The processing of such data constitutes a violation of the provisions of the general data protection regulation and of the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data,” it added.

The saga as far as the church was concerned entered its final chapter last week when the Holy Synod ruled in favour of upholding the defrocking of the three disgraced monks.

They had rejected the proceedings brought against them in an attempt to stave off a slew of sordid accusations, in both ecclesiastical and civil hearings.

Nektarios, Porfyrios Ttoulou and Avakoum Christofi, had been ordered to be defrocked by the Holy Synod in October.

They continue to profess their innocence.

In addition to charges brought by the Holy Synod, Nektarios and Porfyrios also face 24 criminal charges for money laundering and defrauding, at the Nicosia criminal court.

In the religious court they were accused of “sodomy, impurity, and cohabitation”, posting and distributing indecent photos, “acts of solicitation”, fraud and misleading believers with false miracles.

The monks were embroiled in a major scandal that rocked the church, that came to light earlier in the year where videos emerged of them engaging in ‘sexually unethical acts’.

According to reports on Monday, a meeting is to be held this week at the legal service to review the progress of the cases under criminal investigation.