A court in Ukraine has extended a preventive measure in the form of detention for Archpriest of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church Sergiy Chertilin, lawyer Nikita Chekman, representing the interests of the UOC, said on Wednesday.
On April 8, the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported that the Kiev Court of Appeal upheld the appeal against the arrest of Archpriest Sergius of the UOC accused of inciting religious hatred.
"A court hearing was held in the case of Father Sergius.... The court did not take into account all the circumstances pointed out by the defense and extended the period of interruption of Father Sergius under arrest for more than one month ... The state of health, which deteriorated greatly, was not taken into account," Chekman said in a video message published on his Telegram channel.
According to him, while the judge was in the conference room, the SBU investigator and the prosecutor of the Kiev regional Prosecutor's Office went there. He does not rule out that pressure could have been exerted on the judge.
"Complaints will be submitted to the Supreme Council of Justice, applications to law enforcement agencies... When the judge is in the conference room, no one can go to him," Chekman added.
In March, representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine, after searches in the editorial office of the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOC) and the Center for Legal Protection of the Interests of the UOC in Kiev, reported on the neutralization of the criminal organization of the so-called media bloc of the UOC, allegedly inciting religious hostility. Later, the SPJ reported that journalists, human rights defenders and administrative staff were charged with crimes of varying severity, including treason. According to the SPJ, six people were placed in custody: Archpriest Sergiy Chertilin, Andrey Ovcharenko, Valery Stupnitsky, Ivan Rosada, Tatyana Bezmalenko and Vladimir Bobechko.
The Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the country's recent history. Referring to its connection with Russia, local authorities in different regions of Ukraine have decided to ban the activities of the UOC, and a bill has been submitted to the country's parliament on its actual prohibition in Ukraine. The authorities have imposed sanctions on some representatives of the clergy of the UOC. The Security Service of Ukraine began to open criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, conduct "counterintelligence activities" – searches at bishops and priests, in churches and monasteries, in search of evidence of "anti-Ukrainian activities."
According to the materials of RIA Novosti