Photo:bureau.kz
An investigative court in Almaty has ordered the pre-trial detention of former priest Iakov Vorontsov for two months. His lawyer, Galym Nurpeisov, told the outlet Vlast.kz by phone that the court sanctioned the arrest and rejected a defense motion for house arrest. The decision will be appealed.
Vorontsov is charged under Articles 302 (“Maintaining a drug den”) and 296 (“Possession of narcotics without intent to distribute”) of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code.
Vorontsov is a former hieromonk of the Astana and Almaty diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. After publicly criticizing Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the leadership of the Church, he was suspended from ministry and defrocked.
He was detained in Almaty on February 13 following a nighttime search conducted by police and special forces officers. Authorities claim that a powdery substance was found in his home. Initially, police accused him of non-medical drug use, and a court sentenced him to 10 days of administrative arrest. Subsequently, law enforcement announced the opening of a criminal investigation into alleged organization of a drug den.
In a letter from detention published by his supporters on social media, Vorontsov denied the accusations:
“There is no and never has been any drug den in my home. (…) The powder that was found does not belong to me. I believe it was planted to persecute and discredit me. It is not difficult to guess who benefits from this. Everyone knows who publicly discredited me with lies and slander, and who publicly called for criminal prosecution against me.”
In recent years, Vorontsov had repeatedly sought to register a new religious association in Kazakhstan independent of the Moscow Patriarchate but was denied by the Ministry of Justice. Shortly before his arrest, it became known that he had challenged this refusal in court.
