UOC Metropolitan of Tulchyn faces 6 years in prison

Metropolitan Jonathan in the Vinnytsia City Court. Photo: tulchin-eparchia.org.ua

On August 4, 2023, at a meeting of the Vinnytsia City Court in the case of Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchyn, the new prosecutor demanded the ultimate punishment – 6 years in prison, the press service of the Tulchyn diocese reports.

“Despite all legal and factual evidence of his innocence by the defense,” the diocese noted.

“The prosecutor read that the defendant, driven by ideology, searched for pro-Russian leaflets on the Internet and downloaded them to the system disk of his computer in order to distribute them to his priests in the public office, in which Vladyka had not been for a whole year, having his own office,” the message specified.

The Tulchyn diocese noted that “by electronic traces – the dates of manipulations with his computer, lawyers found out that a file with provocative political leaflets was thrown into his computer by someone when he had been ‘arrested’ by investigators for several days!”

“The defense reasonably demanded that Vladyka be fully acquitted: due to the many pre-investigation procedural violations and fraud (manipulation) during the searches, and necessarily taking into account the practice of Western courts, including legal Europe, where Ukraine has been striving to enter for many years,” summed up the diocese.

Metropolitan Jonathan pleaded not guilty.

The announcement of the court verdict is scheduled for August 7, 2023.

As the UOJ reported earlier, fake leaflets were planted on Metropolitan Jonathan during the search.

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