Court Drops German Bishop Probe

German prosecutors have dropped a probe into allegations that the country's top cleric, Freiburg Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, hired a pedophile priest.

"The investigation into Freiburg Archbishop Robert Zollitsch has been closed," the Associated Press quoted Prosecutor Christoph Hettenbach as saying in a statement released Wednesday.

An anonymous complaint had accused the 71-year-old Zollitsch of reappointing a priest in 1987 known to have sexually abused minors in the 1960s.

"Since no concrete abuse cases or victims' names have come to light from the priest's second period in Birnau from 1987 to 1992, there are no grounds for holding Dr Zollitsch criminally responsible," Hettenbach said in the statement.'

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