RUSSIA/ISRAEL
International Business Times
By Kalyan Kumar | September 23, 2014
A Russian priest in Israel is facing extradition after Russia sounded an international arrest warrant for the alleged sexual abuse of two minor girls. Grozovsky, 35, belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church. This father of four is a known figure in social circles. Grozovsky is also claimed to have served as adviser to Maksim Mitrofanov, director of FC Zenit sports club, reported AFP.
An Orthodox priest holds a cross as Serbs gather to mark the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo at Gazimestan, near the capital Pristina June 28, 2014.
The Israel police arrested Gleb Grozovsky on Sunday and is planning to extradite him to Russia. Grozovsky arrived in Israel in September 2013 as a tourist and applied for citizenship. Israel rejected his request and asked him to leave. But the Russian priest asked the High Court to act against the directive, but the verdict of the court has been released yet.
Sexual Assault
Grozovsky is facing the charge of assaulting two underage girls at an Orthodox summer camp on the Greek island of Kos in June 2013. The investigators have also collected information about a series of similar crimes in Saint-Petersburg by this offender. The priest was active among the Saint-Petersburg drug addicts and ran many church-affiliated youth programmes and hosted its own radio show. Grozovsky has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct. In April 2014, the priest wrote a letter on VKontakte, Russia’s popular social media Web site, defending himself and asserting that he would return to Russia to defend his innocence.
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