Court upholds appeal of Vinnytsia RSA official – "black registrar"

Head of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration’s department for religious affairs Ihor Saletskyi in the courtroom. Photo: vezha.vn.ua

On October 18, 2019, the Vinnytsia Court of Appeal declared invalid the decision of the Vinnytsia City Court to suspend Ihor Saletskyi for two months from performing the duties of head of the Department for Nationalities and Religions of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration. This was reported on the pages of the Vinnytsia information portal Vezha.

The Vinnytsia City Court had justified its decision to suspend Saletskyi on the grounds that the official could influence witnesses and destroy important documents in the case concerning the unlawful re-registration of UOC religious communities in the Yampil district and in Luka-Meleshkivska into the OCU.

According to Saletskyi’s lawyer, Tetiana Kashpruk, the official’s alleged offense falls into the category of minor crimes, and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine provides that suspension from office may be applied only to crimes of medium gravity.

The official and his lawyer also denied that Saletskyi could use his official powers to destroy documents in the case or pressure witnesses.

The prosecutor objected to granting the appeal.

The judges spent about 20 minutes in the deliberation room, after which they decided to uphold Saletskyi’s appeal.

By way of reminder, on October 10, 2019, the Vinnytsia City Court ruled to suspend Saletskyi from performing his official duties for two months.

On October 17, 2019, the head of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration’s department for religious affairs, Ihor Saletskyi, who had been suspended by court order, complained to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov about the “bias” of his subordinates. The official stated that all his actions were entirely lawful, and that the Main Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine in Vinnytsia region had acted in a biased manner when it opened a criminal case against him.

“It is alarming that the Vinnytsia police’s handling of statements from OCU representatives regarding provocative actions by priests and believers of the UOC (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) – facts of beatings and of preventing members of OCU religious communities from entering churches – is being written off into the case,” Saletskyi addressed Avakov. “Such actions show signs of being systematic and biased and may be qualified as direct and indirect support for a specific religious organization – the UOC (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate).”

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