CASE
AGAINST
POROSHENKO "FOR CREATION OF P.Ts.U." CLOSED—G.B.R.
The
acting director
of the State Bureau of Investigation (G.B.R.), Alexander
Sokolov, reported that
the case regarding the cancellation of the registration of the
Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UPTsKP) has been
closed. As the press
service of the G.B.R. reported, he spoke about this at a
briefing on 30 July.
This was reported by Radio Liberty.
The head
of the G.B.R.
declared that the criminal proceedings to which the former
president of Ukraine
Petro Poroshenko referred in his public statements actually
pertained not to
the tomos but to the cancellation of the registration of the
Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. It was registered on the basis
of a court
decision back during the administration of Roman Truba and is
now closed, the
report says.
Sokolov
noted that in
the context of the pretrial investigation, the G.B.R. did not
challenge, and it
did not verify, the issue regarding receipt by Ukraine of the
tomos concerning
autocephaly.
"The
aforementioned proceedings were opened on the basis of a
petition of the
faithful of this community and they raised the question that
they had been
deprived of the possibility of freely using the churches of this
community.
After the conduct of a pretrial investigation, assessment of all
possible
facts, and conduct of all necessary search action, this case was
closed. The
investigators did not establish
evidence of criminal violations of law, which fall under article
161 of the
Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely the violation of the equal
rights of citizens
based on their religious convictions," Sokolov said.
He said
that
cancellation of the registration of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of the Kiev
Patriarchate should be considered within the context of
administrative or civil
jurisprudence. The director of the bureau also warned against
politicizing the
work of the G.B.R. and speculating on religious topics.
"The
G.B.R. acts
exclusively within the framework of existing legislation and
does not interfere
in matters of religion. In this regard we have conducted
consultations with
representatives of various religious communities who have been
informed about
the position of the State Bureau of Investigation," Sokolov
added.
On 18
June, the
people's deputy and fifth president of Ukraine, Petro
Poroshenko, declared that
law enforcement agencies had opened a criminal case against him
for
"inciting inter-religious strife" by means of obtaining a tomos
and
creating the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Later
the G.B.R.
confirmed to Ukrainian Pravda that such a case had been launched
by the S.B.U.
back in November by an investigation "on the basis of a
declaration by parishioners
of the UPTsKP."
During
the presidency
of Petro Poroshenko, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was
created in
December 2018 at a unification council, received on 6 January
2019 from
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Holy Synod of the
ecumenical
patriarchate a tomos concerning autocephaly, and on the same day
the document
arrived in Kiev. This document confirmed the existence of the
PTsU as the only
canonical local Orthodox church in Ukraine.
The
chief opponent of
the autocephaly of the PTsU was the Russian Orthodox Church and
the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is associated
with it. The
synod of the UPTsMP even sent to Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew a request to
withdraw the tomos, which allegedly was causing "damage to
Ukrainian
Orthodoxy." (tr. by PDS, posted 31 July 2020)
Background article:
Ukrainian
crime bureau denies interfering in church question
June 19, 2020
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