UPDATE: Hieromonk Ioann Kurmoyarov sentenced to three years in jail for oposing war in Ukraine
The verdict of the Court against Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov was given on 31 August and has finally sentenced the hieromonk to 3 years in a penal colony accused of disseminating false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Fr Ioann was on trial since June 2022 after a series of videos he published on his YouTube channel "Православный Виртуальный Приход" (Orthodox Virtual Parish) where he openly criticized the Russian government’s decision to wage a war in Ukraine on several videos and asked for peace and reconciliation. Particularly a video called "Who will be in hell and who in heaven?", was what let the Russian authorities initiate the procedure against him.
Now he has been convicted for "63 episodes of posting false information" under clauses "g)" and "d)" part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to three years in a penal colony. The prosecution requested seven years of a maximum punishment of ten years for the article. "The court imposed a sentence of imprisonment for a period of three years in a general regime penal colony with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to posting publications on the Internet telecommunications network for a period of two years," the court statement said. The time that the hieromonk spent in the pre-trial detention centre will be deducted from the term.
Source: РБК; Коммерсантъ; Telegram – Объединённая пресс-служба судов Санкт-Петербурга
Photo: РБК