Acting head of Chernovtsy RSA faces trial for fraud in favour of OCU

Presidium of the briefing on the creation of the OCU in Ukraine: acting governor of the Chernovtsy region Mikhail Pavliuk, "Bishop" Daniel Kovalchuk and "Archbishop" Onuphry Khavruk

On May 10, 2019, the National Police of Ukraine, at the direction of the Shevchenko District Court of Chernovtsy, opened criminal proceedings against the acting governor of the Chernovtsy region Mikhail Pavliuk and other officials of the Chernovtsy RSA for fraud in favour of the OCU, as reported on the Facebook page of the Chernovtsy-Bukovina Eparchy of the UOC.

Representatives of the authorities are accused of issuing deliberately false orders, entering knowingly false information in them and forging documents. They face fines of up to 250 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens or restriction of liberty for up to 3 years, with the deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years.

The court has already established that Pavliuk issued falsified raider orders for the involuntary transfer of the parishes of the canonical Church to the jurisdiction of the OCU.

“At the same time, the members of canonical parishes are not only informed of the so-called “voluntary transfers” to the OCU, but this is also done contrary to the current legislation,” as noted on the eparchy’s page.

Acting governor of the region acts contrary to Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local State Administrations”, according to which the main task of local state administrations is to ensure the implementation of the Constitution, laws of Ukraine, acts of the President of Ukraine and executive authorities of the highest level, as well as respect for the rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian people, stressed in the communication about the initiation of criminal proceedings.

It is also noted that the Chernovtsy-Bukovina Eparchy officially reported to the RSA – none of the communities of the canonical Church wants to join the OCU.

Officials ignored this message, which is resulted in serious conflicts on religious grounds in all the localities for which the RSA issued illegal orders on "transfers" to the OCU.

See the illegal orders by Pavliuk here:

> Order 452-p – http://bit.ly/2VU2m8

> Order 441-p – http://bit.ly/2WGMP9z

> Order 438-p – http://bit.ly/2LCpLHM

> Order 354-p – http://bit.ly/2KR4t8V

> Order 312-p – http://bit.ly/2KyVWY9

We recall that in April 2019, the head of the Chernovtsy RSA ordered to re-register the statutes of 3 religious communities of the UOC (in the villages of Berezhnitsa, Kalnovtsy, and Staraya Zhadova) to the OCU. “Today, at the end of the day, the Chernovtsy RSA finally found the strength and published hidden from the public eye order No. 354-p published a week ago. Everything is “fine” in it: ignored are the appeals of the religious community to the RSA, open criminal cases on the fact of the abduction of documents from the religious community, meetings of religious communities, as well as appeals to the Prosecutor's Office...,” noted in the eparchy after the publication of the illegal orders.

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