On Wednesday 16, a preliminary hearing was held in Almaty in the case of defrocked Orthodox priest Yakov (Vladimir) Vorontsov, accused of drug use just as he was attempting to found an independent Orthodox church. As expected, the court decided to continue the process behind closed doors on dubious grounds.
Over 50 people came to the court hearing on charges of Yakov Vorontsov, a priest who was defrocked because of his anti-war stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his attempt to register as an Orthodox parish independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. His statements about Russia’s attack on his neighbor led to the initiation of a criminal case for “inciting hatred”, which was, fortunately, dismissed. However, his attempt to sue the Department of Justice for its refusal to register a religious association very suspiciously coincided with a sudden search in his house and subsequent arrest for “drug use.” Administrative arrest smoothly turned into a criminal case under two articles “operating a drug den” and “possession of drugs”. A few days before the trial, the charge of “operating a drug den” was dropped.
Although the second article provides only for imprisonment, his lawyer, Galym Nurpeisov, suggested they would still try to get the sentence reduced to a suspended one.
Before the hearing began, the defendant himself told reporters he suspected that the order to target him was coming from the Russian Federation.
His supporters who came to the hearing were placed in a room with monitors and barely audible sound. It is only after repeated requests that his mother and sister were allowed into the main courtroom.
At the very beginning, the prosecutor requested that the hearings be held behind closed doors, away from the public and the media, because there would be witnesses fearing for their lives. Although, even if there are such, the courts conduct interrogations of witnesses in such cases in the absence of listeners, then continue the process as usual.
“Closed trials are held in cases involving state secrets, minors, or intimate matters; otherwise, we can assume this is a political case,” said attorney Galym Nurpeisov.
The experience of recent years shows that in fact, when opposition and civil society activists are tried on political grounds, the trials are closed to the public, pretendingly motivated by “concerns for the safety of witnesses”.
Yakov Vorontsov said that the closure of the trial violates his constitutional rights to defense and announced the start of a hunger strike. He has been imprisoned since February of this year, and sent to a psych yard in May – a dubious situation, according to Human Rights Watch. The U.S. State Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) included him in the international database of those persecuted for their faith.
