Lawyer speaks about political motives behind prosecution of UOJ journalists

Journalists from the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) are being persecuted for political reasons. Photo: orda.kz

The lawyer for journalist Andriy Ovcharenko reminded the court that "the state, represented by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), had no right to protect one religious association while destroying the other."

In the lawyer's opinion, "the fact of criminal prosecution for political reasons is confirmed by the very formulations in the suspicion message."

The lawyer noted that this "suspicion" claims that "the goal of the criminal organization, in which Ovcharenko allegedly participated, was the destruction of all the attributes of the Ukrainian state, including the Orthodox Church of Ukraine."

"So, the investigation ascribes the religious association 'Orthodox Church of Ukraine' to the attributes of the Ukrainian state," the lawyer emphasized.

He reminded the court that "according to Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the state symbols of Ukraine are: the state flag, the state emblem, and the state anthem of Ukraine, while Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine establishes the principle of separation of the church and religious organizations from the state."

"Thus, the state, represented by the SBU, had no right to protect one religious association while destroying the other," the lawyer concluded.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the SBU did not provide reasons why a UOJ journalist should be in pretrial detention.

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