OCU declares “persecution” of Poroshenko is untenable

Head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko and the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Photo: liga.net

On June 12, 2020, the OCU announced its distrust of the justice system in Ukraine and the inadmissibility of “political persecution” of the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The text of the statement was published on the website of Epiphany Dumenko’s church structure.

Calling itself the “largest religious community by the number of worshipers”, the new church structure reminded to the judges they will answer before God, while lack of trust in the justice system will affect Ukraine’s international authority. The impunity of those who violate the law, as well as “groundless persecution only for the sake of persecution”, are equally harmful and untenable, the OCU emphasized.

“Recently, an idea has been persistently planted in minds, especially by the media associated with the aggressor country, that various accusations against the fifth President of Ukraine P. Poroshenko have allegedly something to do with his role as Head of State in promoting church unification, establishing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and receiving the Tomos for the OCU from the Ecumenical Patriarch,” reads the text of the statement.

It is “obvious” for the church structure of Epiphany Dumenko that the presence of any political motivation in the activities of law enforcement agencies and criminal proceedings, “in particular against the fifth President of Ukraine”, is untenable and “dangerous for the civil world”.

“In every democratic society, the attitude towards politicians varies – there are those who support them and those who don’t. But the axiom of democracy is that political sympathies or antipathies do not affect justice. Shifting away from this axiom always leads to shifting away from democracy,” the OCU emphasized and cautioned that “internal misunderstandings, political disputes, and the imperfection of state institutions” could result in revenge of the enemy.

The OCU also complained that in 2019 the judicial system protected the rights of the UOC religious communities that were affected by church raiding, illegal actions of “conscientious representatives of local authorities and self-government” and attacks by “active worshipers” of Epiphany Dumenko’s church structure.

“Over the past year, we witnessed a lot of cases of how the legal system is used by opponents of the Ukrainian Church to impede the expression of will of religious communities, to persecute clergy and active parishioners, to pressure bona fide representatives of local authorities and self-government,” upheld Epiphany Dumenko’s church structure and assured it will always be “on the side of the Ukrainian people”.

On May 19, 2020, non-factional deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrey Derkach released the recordings on the air of 112 Ukraine TV channel. From the content of the conversations of the former President of Ukraine it follows that our state is under tight external control from the United States. These materials provoked a stormy public reaction, and the media began to talk about the possible prosecution of Poroshenko for high treason. Later political analysts Ruslan Bortnik and Konstantin Bondarenko noted that the scandal with these films would not affect the fate of the OCU.

On June 10, the State Bureau of Investigation called Poroshenko for questioning in the case of smuggling world-famous paintings. The SBI suspects the politician of illegally transporting over 40 works of art across the border. On the same day, supporters of Poroshenko staged an action with blasphemous paintings near the SBI building.

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