CASE OF METROPOLITAN ARSENIY (YAKOVENKO) WILL BE SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION BY UN SPECIAL PROCEDURES AND UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
On 13 May 2024, the decision of the Dnipro Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the court of first instance to take the abbot of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, Metropolitan Arseny (Yakovenko), into custody as a preventive measure without the right to be released on bail.
Members of the international human rights alliance Church Against Xenophobia and Discrimination, along with millions of Orthodox believers around the world, expected the court to soften the preventive measure for Metropolitan Arseniy, given the obvious controversy of the charges and the absence of any harm from the preaching of the UOC hierarch. As you know, in his speech from the church pulpit, the Orthodox hierarch said several phrases about the inadmissibility of checks on believers and the collection of their personal data at some checkpoints when people are moving to churches and places of religious worship. At the same time, the information expressed by Metropolitan Arseny about the locations of these checkpoints was not specific and meaningful and did not actually cause any harm.
Unfortunately, however, the court found no grounds to mitigate the preventive measure in the case.
At the same time, the criminal case is not being sent to the trial stage, which would make it possible to prove Metropolitan Arseny's innocence and fully exercise his right to a fair trial.
Thus, according to the Human Rights Alliance, the Ukrainian authorities continue the practice of unjustified detention of people in pre-trial detention centres without a sufficient legal purpose, which allows imprisonment to be used not as a preventive measure, but as a measure of actual punishment without a court verdict and proven guilt.
In view of this, Alliance human rights defenders will prepare a case on the unjustified detention of Metropolitan Arseniy for consideration during the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council (18 June - 12 July 2024), in particular during meetings on the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, and will take measures to further publicise his trial at the international level.
We once again call on the Ukrainian authorities to change the preventive measure for Metropolitan Arseny to a more lenient one and to immediately transfer his case to court for a verdict in an open trial.
Press office of the International Human Rights Alliance
‘Church against xenophobia and discrimination’
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