Russian Pastor Sentenced Over Anti-War Sermon

By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Concerns grew Sunday about a frail elderly Russian pastor after he was sentenced to a prison camp for publicly criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A Russian court found Nikolay Romanyuk, 63, guilty of making “public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation,” according to trial observers.

Despite the pastor’s age and serious health conditions, the court sentenced him to four years in a prison labor camp.

“Yes, I gave a sermon in which I touched on military, albeit forced, murder,” Pastor Romanyuk said in a final statement before the verdict, as published by the religious rights group Forum 18.

However, “I do not retract what I said. I set forth my personal view and attitude towards the taking of a human life. This is my personal attitude as a clergyman. I do not retract my sermon.”

Pastor Romanyuk delivered his now-criminalized sermon a week after Russia partially mobilized its forces against Ukraine in September 2022, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Speaking at the Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church in a suburb of Moscow, Romanyuk preached: “Find me in the Old Testament even a hint that we could somehow participate. And it does not matter which tsar calls for this — whether the Ukrainian tsar, the American tsar, or our tsar,” he said, apparently referring also to current Russian President Vladimir Putin.

CHURCH DOCTRINE

“It was written in our [church] doctrine that we are pacifists and cannot participate in this. It is our right to profess this on the basis of Holy Scripture,” he reportedly added.

Pastor Romanyuk’s daughter, Svetlana Zhukova, wrote on social media: “The case is completely fabricated, motivated either by someone’s personal hatred or a general mood. This is my personal opinion — although it’s probably not safe to say what you think. Imagine, Dad was convicted for his opinion, his position.”

“There is no crime. Not a single person suffered from his actions. The state did not suffer at all,” Zhukova stressed.

In addition to injuries Pastor Romanyuk allegedly received during interrogation, he suffers from “hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, psoriasis, and spinal problems” and “needs life-sustaining medication,” Forum 18 emphasized.

When asked why the pastor was given such a lengthy sentence despite his age and condition, a court spokeswomanreplied: “A judge is not obliged to give any explanations on the merits of cases considered or in progress, or to present them to anyone for review, except in cases and in the manner provided for by procedural law.”

It was not immediately clear if Pastor Romanyuk could appeal the sentence.

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