A former Orthodox priest who attempted to establish a church parish in Kazakhstan independent of Moscow has now been arrested on criminal charges.
The investigative court of Almaty decided on February 25 to place defrocked Orthodox priest Yakov (Vladimir) Vorontsov in detention for an additional two months. This carefully considered decision, taken on the third and final day allotted to determine the preventive measure, follows an initial ten-day administrative detention.
On February 13, police arrested him after conducting a surprise search of his home. The official grounds for the arrest: “Possession of narcotics” and “running a brothel” — accusations the defrocked priest denies in letters sent to the outside world and describes as a provocation. He was initially arrested for 10 days under administrative law, accused of using drugs. But as soon as his arrest period ended, he was charged with new offences under the Criminal Code.
In Kazakhstan, accusing a public or political figure of drug use, production, or trafficking is a common practice. Opposition journalist Yulia Kozlova, for example, found herself in a similar situation in 2016, only to be unexpectedly acquitted by the court later on. But proving one’s innocence is not always enough; one must also stay out of politics — something Father Yakov has clearly failed to do.
According to his supporters, the real reason for his arrest lies in his public statements against the Russian Orthodox Church, his criticism of the war in Ukraine, and a lawsuit he filed against the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan after it refused to register his church, which is independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. His break with the Russian Orthodox Church led to his suspension from service, his defrocking, and now criminal charges for incitement to hatred, in addition to the drug-related case.
Although his lawyer, Galym Nurpeisov, requested house arrest, investigative courts typically impose the harshest preventive measure in politically sensitive cases.
