Petrin could not have had access to any state secret data - Russian Orthodox Church
MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - The Moscow Patriarchate denied any link between the criminal case against the former employee of its Department for External Church Relations, Yevgeny Petrin, and the job that he did for the Russian Orthodox Church.
"While doing his job, Petrin did not and could not have had access to any information that constitute a state secret, which excludes the existence of any connection between Petrin's criminal case and his work as an employee of the Department for External Church Relations," the Russian Orthodox Church's Synodal Department for Public and Media Relations said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Moscow City Court pronounced Petrin guilty of high treason and espionage for the U.S. and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
"We express our utter astonishment that several Russian mass media have distributed news reports about the Petrin case that lead the reader to a wrong conclusion about the existence of a connection between his short-term employment with the Synodal establishment and his alleged crime," the Russian Orthodox Church's department said.