Czech police have released Metropolitan Hilarion, a Russian Orthodox Church clergyman serving at a church in Karlovy Vary, along with the camera operator who was with him at the time of his detention. The releases were announced in Hilarion’s Telegram channel.
Hilarion and the camera operator were released without charges, the channel said. An expert examination confirmed that the substance discovered in Hilarion’s car “belongs to the category of prohibited substances.” The channel added: “The Metropolitan Hilarion’s side emphasizes: the mere fact of discovering a prohibited substance does not answer the main question — how these items ended up in the vehicle. […] The defense will seek a full investigation of all the circumstances of what occurred.”
Metropolitan Hilarion was detained in the Czech Republic on May 24. Police stopped the car in which Hilarion and his camera operator were traveling and searched it, according to his Telegram channel. Officers reportedly found “four small containers with a white substance” in the trunk.
Lucie Smoldasova, a spokeswoman for the Czech Republic’s National Drug Control Center, said police had stopped Hilarion’s vehicle after receiving an anonymous tip that drugs might be being transported in it.
Hilarion denied any connection to drugs. His Telegram channel said the search had been conducted in violation of proper procedure, and Hilarion said he had received anonymous threats in recent months demanding that he leave his place of ministry.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called Hilarion’s detention “a staged provocation” and, in protest, summoned the Czech Republic’s chargé d’affaires a.i.
Metropolitan Hilarion led the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations from 2009 to 2022 and was a member of the synod — the Russian Orthodox Church’s supreme governing body. He was called the right hand and one of the possible successors of Patriarch Kirill.
In 2022, Hilarion became the Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary. Two years later, his former personal attendant Georgy Suzuki accused him of sexual harassment. After that, the synod sent Hilarion “into retirement,” demoting him to a priest at an Orthodox church in Karlovy Vary.
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