Russian coronavirus-denying ex-monk sentenced to 7 years

MOSCOW — A former Russian Orthodox monk, who denied that the coronavirus existed and defied the Kremlin, was handed a seven-year jail sentence Friday.

Nikolai Romanov, 67, who was generally known as Father Sergiy till his excommunication by the Russian Orthodox Church, urged his followers to disobey the Russian authorities’s lockdown measures and unfold conspiracy theories a couple of international plot to manage the lots.

A court docket in Moscow convicted him of inciting hatred. His lawyer instantly introduced plans to enchantment.

Romanov served as a police officer throughout Soviet instances, however after quitting the ranks was convicted of homicide, theft and assault and sentenced to 13 years in jail. He turned a monk after his launch.

When the coronavirus pandemic started, he denied its existence and denounced authorities efforts to stem the pandemic as “Devil’s digital camp.” He unfold long-debunked conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and described the vaccines developed in opposition to the virus as a part of a world plot to manage the lots through microchips.

The monk chastised President Vladimir Putin as a “traitor to the Motherland” who was serving a Satanic “world authorities,” and denounced the pinnacle of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, and different high clerics as “heretics” who should be “thrown out.”

Romanov urged followers to disobey the federal government’s lockdown measures and holed up at a monastery close to Yekaterinburg that he based. He had dozens of burly army veterans implement his guidelines whereas the prioress and several other nuns left.

The Russian Orthodox Church stripped Romanov of his abbot’s rank for breaking monastic guidelines and later excommunicated him, however he rejected the rulings. Going through stiff resistance by tons of of his supporters, church officers and native authorities hesitated for months till lastly transferring to evict Romanov and detain him.

Romanov has been in custody since his arrest in December 2020. In November 2021, he was given a 3½-year sentence after being convicted of inciting suicidal actions by sermons by which he urged believers to “die for Russia,” and breaching freedom of conscience, accusations he denied. The seven-year sentence will run concurrently with the earlier sentence.