MOSCOW, December 29 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Basmanny District Court is to examine a petition of investigative authorities seeking to detain excommunicated former schema monk Sergius (Nikolay Romanov), the court’s press service informs RAPSI on Tuesday. 

Romanov is suspected of inducing a minor to commit suicide. Earlier, Russia’s Children Ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova petitioned the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee to launch a probe into allegations of child abuse in a nunnery situated near town of Sredneuralsk in the Sverdlovsk Region, where the former schema monk took refuge.

His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill approved a decision of the church court of the Yekaterinburg eparchy to excommunicate schema monk Sergius (Romanov) on October 19.