A priest of an “alternative” Orthodox church in the Penza region fears that a case is being fabricated against him “for extremism” • Sova • RIMA

A priest of an “alternative” Orthodox church in the Penza region fears that a case is being fabricated against him “for extremism”

April 7, 2011 in a prayer house in the village of Bolotnikovo Luninsky district of the Penza region during the service entered the chief Luninsky police department, Colonel Alexander Voenkov and a district police officer. Having interrupted the festive divine service (on this day the Orthodox celebrate the Annunciation), they demanded Abbot Kharlampiy (Koryazkin) to present documents and was told that he had "problems with the Penza diocese.

The Bolotnikovskaya community is not under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church (apparently, it belongs to the True Orthodox Church, in In any case, Father Kharlampy was the cleric of this particular church in 2006 - OWL).

On April 11, the priest found in the door of his apartment the agenda of the Center for Combating Extremism, but did not appear on the call, t.to. term appearances by that time had already passed. After that, the employees of the Center "E" they began to call the priest's mother and demand to indicate his whereabouts.

O. Kharlampy appealed to the Penza branch of the movement "For Human Rights" with a complaint about the illegal actions of police officers. He fears that the Russian Orthodox Church is fabricating against him at the initiative of the Penza diocese case on charges of extremist activity.

According to the website LeftPenza.ru, pressure on representatives of "alternative" Orthodox organizations appeared before. In 2009, in the house of the confessor of Fr Kharlampy, a priest Denis Kozlov, policemen came under the pretext of searching for stolen goods in a nearby the village of geese, and not having found the stolen, they seized the CDs from the archive of the priest.

Recall that in 2010, police officers participated in the seizure of the temple CPI in the village of Poselki, Kuznetsovsky District, Penza Region. Sources

Penza police as a tool in the fight against dissent in Orthodoxy // LeftPenza.ru. 2011. April 18.