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Russian police raided a monastery in the Ural Mountains early in the morning and arrested a former priest who had detained him and allegedly urged the nuns to commit suicide.
Father Sergei was transferred to Moscow, some 1,400 kilometers from the monastery, where a court ordered his detention for two months.
Videos posted on social media sites show special forces police and many worshipers gathered outside the monastery. “They chased us, they took out all the children, they didn’t let us get warm clothes,” said an anonymous nun on the local E1 media. “They placed the Pope face down on the ground and hit him with a globe,” added.
Father Sergei, known as Nikolai Romanov, became known in Russia for denying the existence of the new coronavirus, inciting mobilizations against the closure of temples due to the pandemic and criticizing the Russian Orthodox Church. He captured the Sredneuralski monastery in Yekaterinburg in June and refused to leave. Church fired in September, because he ignored the prohibition imposed on him to perform services and preach, yet some believers remained on his side.
During his transfer to Moscow, his supporters gathered outside the courthouse, holding photographs and shouting: “Father Sergei, we are with you.”
The former priest will be tried on charges of incitement to suicide, violation of the right to freedom of conscience and promotion of illegal activities. His lawyer told him that he denies all three charges, broadcast by APE-MPE.
The Commission of Inquiry accuses him of urging at least 10 nuns to end their lives and of posting his sermon on the internet. Father Sergei had previously been sentenced to 13 years in prison for murder and robbery, but was released in the 1990s.
A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church wrote on the Telegram: “It is a shame that Sergei and his followers have not heeded the Church’s repeated calls for repentance.”
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