Amsterdam: Arrests of journalists – part of a plan to destroy the UOC

Orthodox journalists Valeriy Stupnitsky, Andriy Ovcharenko, Volodymyr Bobecko, and Father Serhiy Chertylin at the court hearing. Photo: UOJ

The head of the international human rights firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Robert Amsterdam, sent an emergency communication to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, regarding the campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), noting that according to this strategy, the authorities are intensifying the intimidation and persecution of UOC parishioners and clergy.

“These actions are being carried out by and in complicity with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), nationalist deputies of the Verkhovna Rada led by Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, and the OCU. The SBU is arresting priests and Orthodox journalists on false charges, detaining them without a fair trial,” wrote the lawyer.

He also noted that he has witnesses statements confirming that "the SBU is committing war crimes by offering some detained priests as barter in exchange for prisoners of war held by the Russian Federation."

As previously reported by the UOJ, American lawyer Robert Amsterdam on August 6, 2024, wrote a letter to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he detailed documents in his possession confirming the existence of a plan to destroy the UOC.

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