Priest Grozovsky Suspected of Pedophilia Ready to Return to Russia from Israel Only after Charges Dropped

Interfax
January 15, 2014

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=11030

St. Petersburg, January 15, Interfax - Priest Gleb Grozovsky said he intended to return to Russia only after all charges of sexually abusing minors were lifted from him.

"I will return as soon as my arrest in absentia is lifted, my status as a defendant is dropped and my safe return as a Russian citizen with all constitutional rights is guaranteed," Grozovsky said in an interview with the Orthodoxy and the World Internet portal.

"My Israeli lawyer is sending a request to the Investigative Committee on the prospects for lifting the restrictions and the status of a defendant from me and asking that it guarantee my safe return to Russia in order to cooperate with investigators and return my right for the presumption of innocence," the priest was quoted as saying.

At the same time, Grozovsky said that despite his decision not to return to Russia until the charges were dropped, he did not hide from investigators.

"I did not and am not hiding. The Israeli interior ministry knows my residence address and all my movements in Israel are known. () I will emphasize once again that I came to Israel on a business trip with the purpose of providing social services at a center helping alcohol and drug addicts as a cleric of the Moscow Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, not as a tourist, not to mention as a fugitive," the priest said.

Grozovsky said that he still did not admit guilt of committing the crimes he was accused of and that the criminal prosecution of him was related to his social activities.

The investigation regarding the priest has reached a deadlock and will proceed only after the defendant returns to Russia, Grozovsky's attorney Artyom Bakonin has told Interfax.

Investigators believe that in June 2013 Grozovsky, 34, sexually assaulted a 9-year-old and 12-year-old girl in a hotel of a children's camp of the Orthodox travelers' club Philadelphia on the Greek island of Cos.

Grozovsky, who was on a business trip at a center helping drug addicts in Israel, has been put on the international wanted list and placed under arrest in absentia.

The Gatchina Eparchy said in November that the business trip of Grozovsky was cancelled and that he should return to Russia. The priest has been suspended from ministering while the investigation is being conducted.