Supreme Court upholds sentence to Ukrainian Orthodox Church hierarch

The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the verdict against the former head of the Tulchyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Jonathan (Yelets), who was sentenced to 5 years in prison and subsequently exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. This was reported by the Glavkom publication.

It is reported that the defense asked the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict of the courts of previous instances against the bishop and send the case for a new trial. According to the lawyer of Metropolitan Jonathan, the investigation committed a number of violations of the law during the collection of evidence; did not specify the wording of the accusation. Separately, the defense requested that the linguistic examination of the seized church literature and the examination of the accused’s computer be declared inadmissible evidence.

However, the Supreme Court of Ukraine concluded that Metropolitan Jonathan’s guilt in committing the crimes was proven. It was a violation of four articles of the Criminal Code: part 2 of Article 161 (“Violation of equality of citizens based on their race, regional affiliation, religious beliefs”), part 3 of Article 436-2 (“Justification, recognition of the legitimacy, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine”), part 2 of Article 109 (“Distribution of materials calling for a violent change of the constitutional order”), part 1 of Article 110 (“Distribution of materials calling for a change in the boundaries of the territory and state border of Ukraine”).

Earlier, we reported that the 75-year-old hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Jonathan (Yelecky) of Tulchyn and Bratslav, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison, was released from custody. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia personally petitioned for the bishop’s release.