The Supreme Court rejected the DESS appeal against the arrest of the property of the Kyiv Metropolitan Church of the UOC

The Supreme Court of Ukraine has dismissed the appeal of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) against the ruling of the court of first instance. The ruling concerned the refusal to seize the property and accounts of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

This decision, as UOC lawyer Archpriest Nikita Chekman said in his Telegram channel, is a confirmation of the groundlessness of attempts by certain officials to apply unjustified restrictive measures against the religious organization.

The legal proceedings were initiated by the DESS in order to appeal the court decision, which had previously rejected a petition to block the assets of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Supreme Court’s rejection confirms the legality of the original decision and emphasizes the lack of sufficient grounds for the application of such measures against the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the UOC.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that the consideration of the case on liquidation of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was postponed indefinitely. The reason for this decision was the absence of necessary case materials in the court of first instance.