COURT OVERTURNS SEIZURE OF CHURCH IN VILLAGE OF
CHUDNITSA OF ROVNO PROVINCE
Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, 20 October 2015
On 19 October, by decision of a commercial court of
Rovno province, evidence concerning rights of ownership and a
decision on state registration of rights and encumbrances to
immovable property given to the religious parish of the Saint
Paraskeva church of the UPTsKP of the village of Chudnitsa was
ruled invalid.
The Ukrainian court granted the lawsuit of the
religious parish of the UPTs for abolition of these illegally
obtained documents, and thereby the forcible seizure of the
rural church was overturned.
Interconfessional confrontation in Chudnitsa
unfolded back in March of this year, immediately after the
registration here of a parish of the so-called Kiev
patriarchate.
During one of the worship services, muscular men
with some local residents burst into the church, upset icons and
the gospel, pushed people out, and seized the church. Since that
time, violating all possible laws, the so-called UPTsKP has
possessed the church and also initiated a claim to the parish
house in which the religious parish of the UPTs is forced to
conduct its worship services.
We recall that recently, in order to have the
possibility of worshiping in the parish house, UPTs parishioners
were forced to take recourse to a protest action—closing the
Kiev-Chop highway.
It should be noted that on 10 February, by decision
of the Goshchansk district court, the UPTsKP was forbidden to
prepare documents on land use, but the village council and the
so-called Kiev patriarchate did not fulfill the decision of the
court and they prepared the forbidden documents. According to
information from the chief of the Goshchansk district police
department, a criminal case on article 382 of the Criminal Code
of Ukraine has been opened with respect to this incident.
In August the religious parish of the Saint Paraskeva church was forced to send to the commercial court of Rovno province a petition to invalidate the evidence of ownership rights and the decision on state registration of rights and encumbrances to immovable property which was given to the UPTsKP on 17 June 2015. On 19 October the Ukrainian court granted this petition in its entirety. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 October 2015)
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