RUSSIA/ISRAEL
Interfax
St. Petersburg, December 4, Interfax – Russian Orthodox priest Gleb Grozovsky, who is accused of lewd acts with a child, remains in Israel but his exact whereabouts are unclear, according to his lawyer.
“He is in Israel, I don’t know where exactly. In this situation he has the status of a citizen and not that of a priest,” Artyom Bakonin told Interfax.
Investigators claim that the 34-year-old priest sexually abused girls aged nine and 12 at a hotel on the premises of an Orthodox children’s camp on the Kos Island in Greece in June this year. Grozovsky, who was afterward temporarily posted at a drug abuse help center in Israel, had an arrest warrant issued for him and put on an international wanted list.
In November, the Diocese of Gatchina, near St. Petersburg, announced that Grozovsky’s posting in Israel had been terminated and urged him to return to Russia. Grozovsky was suspended as a priest for the period the alleged crimes are being investigated.
Grozovsky protests his innocence.
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