Court extends arrest of former Ural schema-hegumen Sergy for another month

News

27 May 2021, 10:00 Court extends arrest of former Ural schema-hegumen Sergy for another month

Moscow/Yekaterinburg, May 27, Interfax – The Basmanny District Court of Moscow has extended the period of arrest of former schema-hegumen Sergy (Nikolay Romanov), charged with inducing ten nuns to suicide.

“The motion of the investigators to extend the period of Romanov’s arrest until June 21, 2021, has been granted,” court spokesperson Irina Sofinskaya told Interfax.

Sergy’s lawyer Pavil Babikov told Interfax that the defense team will appeal this ruling.

Romanov has been charged with several criminal offenses, namely inducement to suicide, violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion, and arbitrariness.

The former schema-monk denies any wrongdoing.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Romanov publically urged at least ten nuns residing in the Sredneuralsky Convent he occupied to kill themselves.

“Subsequently, while being aware that his calls may be perceived by an inexplicitly extensive audience and result in consequences dangerous to the public, [he] posted a video recording of his speech containing the signs of inducing believers to commit suicide under the pretense of the religious ideology of Christianity on the Internet,” the Investigative Committee said.

Additionally, according to the charges, disagreeing with the decision on his defrocking, Romanov refused to leave the convent and prevented access of all persons, including representatives of the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, to the convent at his own discretion, thus illegally hindering the observance of religious rites.

The investigators also believe that Romanov committed arbitrariness by hindering the inventory of real estate in the convent’s territory in violation of civil law.

In 2020, Romanov was defrocked and then excommunicated. In June, he and his supporters effectively seized the Sredneuralsky Convent he had founded.

Romanov’s views and statements gained notoriety in 2020 due to his public denial of the threat of coronavirus.