The Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow has sentenced former Ural Sheikhumen Sergiy (Nikolai Romanov) five years and six months in prison because of sermons on the Internet. Taking into account the previous sentence, due to the seizure of the monastery, the punishment will increase by three and a half years — up to seven years in a penal colony, Mediazona was told in court. Catholics and Muslims in six recordings of his sermons on the Internet (paragraph “c” of part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code).
«I give my life for you, for all of Russia». How the disgraced shiigumen Sergius was tried
The second defendant in the case was 33-year-old colleague of Sergius Vsevolod Moguchev, who spoke to journalists on his behalf and posted his sermons on his YouTube channel. The court also sentenced him to five years in a penal colony.
In 2021, Sergius was already sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in the case of the seizure of the Sredneuralsky convent and preaching, where he asked the parishioners if they were ready to “go to the cross for Russia.”
The conflict began in 2020, when Sergiy, who denied the existence of the coronavirus, began recording videos against quarantine restrictions and accused President Vladimir Putin of creating a “fascist concentration camp for Satan.”
Sergius refused to obey the demand of the church authorities and go into seclusion and «humble prayer», as he was ordered, and in June 2022 he captured the monastery and put up Cossacks to guard. In response, the church leadership defrocked him and excommunicated him from the church. In December 2020, the nunnery was cordoned off by the security forces, who stormed it and took Sergius to Moscow.
Both criminal trials of shiigumen Sergius were carried out in Moscow, fearing the reaction of his associates in the Urals. The case of «inciting hatred» was considered behind closed doors. An employee of the prosecutor's office explained this by the fact that the followers of Sergius sprinkled holy water in court, walked around her car and looked under it, and also «called [on the Internet] for rituals [in relation to] the participants in the process.»
Schiigumen denied the accusation of «inciting hatred.» His lawyer, Pavel Babikov, argued that the case was based on the results of one linguistic examination. “[Sergius] opposed the world council of churches, which includes all religions, and since he opposed the Pope in his speech, this was qualified as a speech against all Catholics. he said. — Religious preaching was reformatted into secular speech. And the secular specialist interpreted them as hatred of the Jews. Although the word «Jew» is there, it is clear that it does not equal the word «Jew.» -context-cite__image» alt=»1″ />Almost holy. How the Ural shiigumen Sergiy defeats chipping and banishes the iPhone