Russian Orthodox priest Nikolai Lishchenyuk, declared as persona non grata in early August, must leave the Czech Republic within a month, following the Constitutional Court rejecting his appeal against the decision to cancel his permanent residence permit, the Interior Ministry told CTK today.
The Ministry said the commission for decisions on the residence of foreigners had cancelled Lishchenyuk’s permanent residence, and the decision had come into force last August. This June, the Constitutional Court turned down the priest’s complaint.
The Polish Catholic news agency reported that the Czech Republic had declared Lishchenyuk an undesirable person in early August, and that he was due to leave the country within a month. According to the agency, the decision was made because the cleric “with the support of the Russian authorities, created an influence structure with the aim of supporting separatist tendencies in European Union countries.” Therefore, the Czech authorities considered that there were “well-founded suspicions” that he was a threat to the country’s security.
Hana Mala, from the Interior Ministry communication department, told CTK yesterday that the commission had decided to revoke the priest’s permanent residence permit. “The decision came into force on 25 August 2023. The foreign national was given a 30-day deadline to leave after the decision came into force,” she noted.
Lishchenyuk challenged the decision in court. The Regional Court in Plzen, west Bohemia, rejected his lawsuit, and the Supreme Administrative Court subsequently ruled that the appeal was inadmissible. The Constitutional Court then rejected the complaint on 12 June, Mala said.
“I do not consider the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to be a church and its representatives to be clergymen,” said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky (Pirates) in a statement his press department provided to CTK. “It is part of the Kremlin’s repressive machine involved in Russia’s influence operations. And that is how they should be treated, not only in the Czech Republic but throughout Europe.”
The West Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary granted honorary citizenship to Lishchenyuk four years ago. As the Dean of the town’s Orthodox Church of Saints Peter and Paul, he received it for his contribution to the reconstruction of important cultural monuments, especially the aforementioned church, as well as for his rich cultural activities and for spreading the good reputation of the town among believers and representatives of the Orthodox Church across the world.
