Father Sergiy
Russian police have arrested an ultraconservative defrocked priest during a raid on a women’s monastery that he had taken control of.
Charges against Father Sergiy include encouraging minors to kill themselves.
The former priest took over the Sredneuralsk convent near Yekaterinburg in June after the Russian Orthodox Church banned him from preaching, and refused to leave.
He has denied the existence of the coronavirus pandemic.
The controversial cleric was barred from preaching in April and then stripped of the right to wear a cross in May after he encouraged the faithful to disobey public health orders.
Fr Sergiy helped found the Sredneuralsk Convent in the early 2000s, and hundreds of supporters have flocked there over the years to hear his sermons.
Russian authorities shut churches to worshippers between April and June, prompting Fr Sergiy to accuse them of co-operating with “forerunners of the Antichrist”.
Fr Sergiy was detained in a raid in the early hours of Tuesday, after clashes between police and his followers, which lasted about an hour.
