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14 January 2021, 14:10Federal Penitentiary Service denies reports on deteriorating health of former schema-hegumen Sergy
Moscow, January 14, Interfax - Arrested former schema-hegumen Sergy (Nikolay Romanov) is well and under medical observation, the press bureau for the Moscow Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
"Nikolay Romanov was under the observation of detention facility doctors. He is fine," the press bureau said in a statement obtained by Interfax.
According to the statement, some media reported earlier that Romanov's health had deteriorated and an ambulance had been called to the detention facility.
"This information is not true," the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
Former schema-monk Sergy, who was earlier stripped of his religious orders for violating his priestly oath, monastic vows, and several apostolic rules and church canons, was excommunicated by the Church on September 10, 2020. He had repeatedly said that he would not leave the Sredneuralsk Convent.
The police detained Romanov in the convent on December 29, 2020.
He has been charged with several criminal offenses such as inducement to suicide, violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion, and arbitrariness.
The Basmanny District Court of Moscow issued an arrest warrant for Romanov.
It was reported in January that Romanov had gone on a dry hunger strike to protest.
Sergy, 65 (secular name Nikolay Vasilyevich Romanov) is the former confessor of the Sredneuralsky Convent. He was known for many years as a leader and ideologist of a sect whose adherents worship Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar, whom they consider to be "the redeemer of Russia" who repeated the act of Jesus Christ. Sergy gained prominence after he flatly denied the need to close churches and the use by the Church of other measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in spring 2020, which led to his public conflict with the administration of the Yekaterinburg Metropolia and the Moscow Patriarchate. The fact that he was ordained while having a criminal conviction for murder caused additional scandals, and there were complaints of the cruel treatment of children by people living in the Sredneuralsky Convent. |
