In Prykarpattia, a woman ordered to pay a fine for criticizing OCU on FB

Facebook. Photo: SCANPIX

The Verkhovyna District Court of Ivano-Frankivsk region has sentenced a woman who allegedly created a "bot" to harass and criticize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) on the social network Facebook. According to the local publication "Blitz Info", the court found the woman guilty of inciting religious hatred and imposed a fine of 4,250 UAH.

Court materials indicate that she spread critical comments about the OCU on social media. After her posts in March 2023, representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted a "preventive conversation" with her. However, according to the report, she ignored this and continued to post comments against the OCU. As a result, a criminal case was opened against her.

One of the comments that the court considered "critical" was the following: "I cannot bear to see how OCU barbarians harass and beat our believers. I cannot bear to see how they torture our clergy, how the state bans pilgrimages to holy sites. I cannot bear to see how fanatics illegally evict UOC believers from churches."

In the verdict dated August 27, she was found guilty and fined 4,250 UAH. In addition, she must pay 24,382 UAH for court expert examinations.

As the UOJ previously reported, a UOC believer in the Rivne region was fined 3,400 UAH for a post on the Internet.

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