Five months after he resigned as Bishop of Thessaliotis, following mounting pressure in the wake of allegations about him dealing in drugs, Theoklitos was yesterday cleared by the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod of any wrongdoing.

Theoklitos was accused by his predecessor of having been detained by police in a dodgy club after being caught dealing drugs and that the matter had then been hushed up. After being forced to defend himself before the Synod and in the middle of a series of sex and corruption scandals that badly shook the Church, Theoklitos stepped down in February with sources claiming he had come under heavy pressure to do so from aides of Archbishop Christodoulos, the Church’s head, to whom he had been close.

However, the Synod said yesterday that after questioning 32 people, it found no evidence to back the charges against Theoklitos and said that the local police denied that the incident had ever taken place. The Holy Synod said it was dropping all the charges against him.