According to Amnesty International, this priest and monk of the Russian Orthodox Church residing in Saint Petersburg denounced on YouTube what he considers Russian aggression and urged Christians to condemn it.
A Russian priest who criticized the offensive in Ukraine on the internet, Ioann Kourmoïarov, was sentenced to three years in prison in Saint Petersburg (northwest), the court which tried him announced on Thursday, in a context of continued repression in Russia.
He “was found guilty of committing an offense” and “the court imposed a three-year prison sentence in a penal colony,” according to a statement posted on Telegram.
Ioann Kourmoïarov is also “deprived of the right to express himself on the internet for two years”, added the court.
Condemnation on YouTube
According to Amnesty International, this priest and monk of the Russian Orthodox Church residing in Saint Petersburg denounced on YouTube what he considers Russian aggression and urged Christians to condemn it.
“On April 1, 2022, he was stripped of his priesthood. On June 7, Ioann Kourmoiarov was arrested, charged with deliberately disseminating false information and placed in pre-trial detention,” underlined this non-governmental organization.
Last February, the European Parliament requested in a resolution his release as well as “that of all other political prisoners in Russia”, “who were only prosecuted for their opposition” to Russia’s military intervention in his country. Ukrainian neighbor.
The Orthodox Church behind Moscow
Since the start of this offensive on February 24, 2022, only a handful of priests of the Orthodox Church in Russia, which claims 150 million faithful around the world, have openly spoken out against the military campaign launched by the Kremlin. Conversely, their leader, Patriarch Kirill, an ally of Vladimir Putin, called for “unifying” around the authorities.
Russia has faced a growing crackdown on voices critical of power for many years, which accelerated after the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Almost all of the major opponents have fled their country or been imprisoned, like the best known of them, Alexeï Navalny, already detained and sentenced in early August to 19 years in prison in a new trial.
Thousands of ordinary Russians have also been sentenced to heavy sentences for their opposition to the offensive, whether during protest actions or even for simple posts on social media.
Source: BFM TV
