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Court to consider cleric's car crash case

The court postponed the review twice because of the cleric's medical treatment related to the road incident

MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) — The magistrate court of Moscow's Zamoskvorechye district will review a case of administrative offense against father superior Timofei /Alexei Podobedov/ of the Elijah the Prophet Church in Obydensky Lane, accused of causing a car crash.

The court postponed the review twice because of the cleric's medical treatment related to the road incident.

At the previous hearing, Podobedov's lawyers presented to the court the medical documents certifying that there had been no alcohol in his blood at the time of the road accident, but the court did not attach them to the case materials.

The cleric is accused of violating Article 12.26 of the Code of administrative offenses /"refusing to meet the requirement to undergo an alcotest/. The penalty is suspension of driving license for up to two years, a 5,000-rouble fine and up to 15 days of administrative arrest.

"Alexei Podobedov disagrees with the charges," his lawyer Vyacheslav Podoprigora said earlier.

Podoprigora said the road accident occurred after an incoming car moved across the path of the cleric's vehicle. "The priest suffered a cranial injury," according to the lawyer.

Mass media outlets reported the cleric had been involved in a road accident on the central Moscow ring road when a BMW with diplomatic corps license plates driven by Podobedov collided with two cars, one of which was moving in an incoming lane. The cleric refused to take an alcohol test on which police were insisting. Subsequent reports said the Russian Orthodox Church suspended the cleric for the period of the investigation.