Ex-communicated Orthodox priest who seized convent sentenced to 3.5 years in prison

Moscow’s Izmailovsky District Court has sentenced former Schema-Hegumen Sergii (Nikolai) Romanov to three and a half years in prison, finding him guilty of arbitrariness, violating the right to freedom of conscience and religion, and incitement to suicide, TASS reported on Tuesday, November 30.

Romanov pleaded not guilty. “I called not for suicide, but for the readiness to sacrifice [one’s] life, for religious feats…I myself dream of repeating the path of Christ, I go toward this with my whole life,” he told the court.

The defense intends to appeal the verdict, Romanov’s lawyer said on Tuesday. 

Sergii Romanov is one of the most well known priests in Russia’s Ural region. In the spring of 2020, he was banned from conducting religious services due to his radical views about the coronavirus pandemic.

In June 2020, Romanov seized the Sredneuralsk Women’s Monastery, a convent outside of Yekaterinburg, and overthrew the Mother Superior. He continued to conduct religious services and was ex-communicated in October 2020. A SWAT team stormed the monastery and arrested Romanov in December 2020.

Investigators accused Romanov of urging believers to commit suicide under the guise of spreading Christian ideology. They also accused him of obstructing a property survey of the Sredneuralsk Women’s Monastery and of preventing representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church from accessing the convent’s grounds, thereby preventing the conduct of religious ceremonies. Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Romanov to four years in prison.