Overview
- Czech police stopped Metropolitan Ilarion on a road west of Prague on May 24 and reported finding three or four containers with a white prohibited substance in the trunk.
- Ilarion was held and questioned for more than nine hours and was released without formal charges on May 26 while the criminal investigation remains open.
- Ilarion told TASS on May 27 that he has left the Czech Republic, denied any involvement, called the incident a provocation, and said he will brief Patriarch Kirill.
- Ilarion’s lawyer said the circumstances of the stop and the trunk search raise serious questions and that the cleric was not allowed to be present during the search; Czech police have not commented publicly.
- The case has diplomatic and institutional implications because Ilarion is a high-profile former head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s external relations department and Russia’s foreign ministry has formally protested to Prague.