Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC Ordered to Retract “Offensive Statements” About Drabinko

The court partially upheld Metropolitan Oleksandr Drabinko’s lawsuit to protect his “honor, dignity, and business reputation,” requiring the Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to retract several evaluative judgments made in a public letter from the UOC Synod in 2016. The Metropolia was also ordered to pay Drabinko 33,931 hryvnias in legal costs. Drabinko shared the news on his Facebook page.

The case concerned an official document titled “Open Appeal of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko” dated November 14, 2016. The document contained accusations against Drabinko related to his public statements about the final years of the late Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) and the prosecutor’s investigation.

The court found the following statements in the appeal to be “false, defamatory, and damaging to honor and dignity”:

“Adding shame to the situation is the fact that the source of the informational dirt was Metropolitan Oleksandr Drabinko of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Vyshneve;”

“Without informing church authorities of any important facts he allegedly knew, he decided to spread unsubstantiated rumors and slander through the media;”

“…regarding baseless suspicions of involvement in a high-profile crime…”

According to the court ruling, the Kyiv Metropolia must publish the operative part of the decision on the official website of the Synodal Information and Education Department within one month of the ruling’s coming into legal force. The text must not be altered or accompanied by any commentary.

The ruling has not yet come into legal force and may be appealed within 30 days.

Previously, Robert Amsterdam, head of the international law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP representing the legal interests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, stated his readiness to take legal action if the Ukrainian government continues to pressure the UOC.