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28 October 2021, 10:00Searches carried out in Yekaterinburg in defrocked priest inquiry
Yekaterinburg, October 28, Interfax - Officers from the Investigative Committee, including from its headquarters, are conducting searches as part of an inquiry into Nikolay Romanov (former priest Sergy), charged with incitement to hatred, lawyer Pavel Babikov told Interfax on Wednesday.
"Yesterday and today, searches are being carried out [at the Yekaterinburg addresses of the people who visited the monastery]. We suppose that this is to identify the person who posted the video with Father Sergy on the Internet. Witnesses are also being questioned in the case," Babikov said.
Investigators could not be reached for comment.
Lawyers said earlier that Romanov and his close associate Vsevolod Moguchev had been charged with incitement to hatred after several video clips were posted on the Internet. Both are now in custody, the former in Moscow and the latter in Yekaterinburg.
Romanov was defrocked in the summer of 2020 for violating his priestly oath, monastic vows, and several apostolic rules and church canons and excommunicated by the Church on September 10, 2020. He repeatedly said that he would not leave the Sredneuralsky Convent, but was detained in late December 2020.
On December 29, 2020, Moscow's Basmanny District Court issued an arrest warrant for Romanov. He was charged with several criminal offenses, namely inducement to suicide, violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion, and arbitrariness.
His case is being heard by a court in Moscow. |
