Iakov Vorontsov during a court hearing. Photo: bureau.kz
Former Russian Orthodox Church priest Iakov Vorontsov, who was sentenced to four years in prison in Kazakhstan, has said from a pretrial detention center in Almaty that he is innocent. The contents of his letter dated October 9, written two days after the verdict, were published on Facebook by the recipient, his friend Geniyat Isin.
«If you can, tell everyone that I am innocent. I have not broken, and I have not admitted guilt. I was urged to offer a hypocritical repentance for something I did not do. Then I would have received a suspended sentence. But I did not take that sin upon myself,» Vorontsov writes.
According to Isin, the former priest had expected to be released until the very end because «the prosecution's case completely fell apart in court.» Vorontsov calls the sentence unjust and merciless and intends to appeal it.
Excerpt from Iakov Vorontsov's letter. Photo provided to Fergana by Geniyat Isin.
Isin, citing Vorontsov, reports that he has ended his hunger strike and is gradually returning to eating. He spent 22 days alone in a cell, but a cellmate has now been placed with him.
On October 7, Almaty's Medeu District Court No. 2 found Vorontsov guilty of illegally acquiring and possessing an analogue of a psychotropic substance in a particularly large amount without intent to sell (Part 4 of Article 296 of Kazakhstan's Criminal Code). As Fergana reported, the case concerned 2.44 grams of a methcathinone analogue found during a search.
The court imposed a six-year sentence, but an amnesty marking the adoption of the new Constitution cut the term to four years. Defense lawyer Galym Nurpeisov says the charge has not been proven: according to him, investigators failed to establish either that the substance belonged to Vorontsov or where and when it was acquired.
Vorontsov, whose secular name is Vladimir, was born in Alma-Ata and served as a hieromonk in the Astana and Almaty Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. He rose to prominence after publicly condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the policies of the Moscow Patriarchate's leadership. He was later defrocked, and Kazakhstan's Ministry of Justice twice rejected his attempts to register an Orthodox community independent of Moscow. The history of his conflict with the church is detailed in Fergana's article «Father Iakov vs. the Patriarchate.»
