The Orthodox Christian bishop of Balti and Falesti has been fined by a Moldovan court over controversial claims he made about LGBTI people in September of 2012 in a landmark ruling.

Bishop Markel had called for LGBTI people to be banned from working in education, food preparation and the health industry, making the astounding claim that, ‘92% of them are AIDS-HIV patients [sic].’

LGBTI Moldovan rights group GenderDoc-M lodged a complaint against Bishop Markel and a court has now ordered he pay the group a fine of 10,000 leus (around $US750) and 12,000 leus to cover the group’s legal expenses (around $US850).

Bishop Markel has also been ordered to apologize for his claims. It remains to be seen if he will do so.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Moldova in 1995 and LGBTIs have some anti-discrimination protections but have no legal recognition of their relationships as yet.