In St. Petersburg, the prosecution asks that former priest Ioann Kurmoyarov be sentenced to seven years in prison in the case of military “fakes”

During the debate in the Kalininsky District Court of St. Petersburg, the prosecutor asked to assign seven years in a general regime colony to former priest Ioann Kurmoyarov in the case of military “fakes.” This was reported by “Paper” with reference to a correspondent in the courtroom.

Kurmoyarov is accused of disseminating false information about the Russian army motivated by political hatred (clause “e” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). In addition to the actual sentence, the prosecutor asked to ban the defendant from administering websites for two years.

The criminal case against the former priest became known in June 2022. Then Kurmoyarov was placed in a pre-trial detention center - later in the detention center he was registered as “prone to extremism and terrorism.” He also complained that the pre-trial detention center staff ignored his requests for help due to his poor health.

The reason for the persecution was several anti-war videos, including the video “Who will be in hell and who will be in heaven?” In it, Kurmoyarov criticized the invasion of Ukraine from the point of view of Christian doctrine - in particular, he said that the killed Russian soldiers would go to hell, not heaven, since they were not peacemakers.

On August 10, 2022, the priest was finally charged in the case; on August 29, it became known that he admitted guilt. On April 25, 2023, information appeared that the judge in the case had changed, and therefore the materials would be considered anew.

The former priest repeatedly spoke out against the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2020, he was suspended from ministry for two months and dismissed from the Novosibirsk theological seminary without explanation. He himself associated this with criticism of the main temple of the Ministry of Defense.

In 2022, Kurmoyarov joined the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (RCOR) - later the Russian Orthodox Church deprived him of the priesthood due to “active media activities in support of the nationalist regime of Ukraine”, spreading “fakes” about the armed forces, as well as for participation in the “schismatic organization” of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad .