Head of UOC Law Dept: Nearly 250 criminal cases on church raiding opened

Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, head of the Legal Department of the UOC. Photo: screenshot / YouTube-channel "First Cossack"

Lawyers filed about 400 lawsuits, in which they opened about 250 criminal proceedings regarding the illegal seizure of religious communities and churches, said the head of the Legal Department of the UOC, Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, at a briefing at the Congress of representatives of the seized UOC churches. The video from the briefing was published on the First Cossack YouTube channel.

Archpriest Alexander stressed that it is very difficult to fight with legal or juridical methods in a politically motivated situation.

Therefore, the consideration of cases of forceful seizure of temples and communities is progressing slowly, unfortunately, and in some cases the courts did not even come to the consideration of the case on the merits, the head of the Legal Department of the UOC noted.

Father Alexander explained that this state of affairs was due to a certain position of the Supreme Court and other judicial bodies, which are still arguing about which court should consider the claims filed by the UOC.

“There are a number of lawsuits that have reached the Supreme Court, and now we are awaiting a final decision on which court will finally handle our cases,” he said.

As the UOJ reported, Poroshenko initiated a bill to liquidate religious organizations.

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