SBU: Case of arrested UOJ employees brought to court

SBU. Photo: SBU

On 25 October, the press service of the Security Service of Ukraine said that it had completed a pre-trial investigation into “participants of a criminal organization that carried out information sabotage against Ukraine on the order of the FSB”. The photos published in the agency's Telegram channel show UOJ journalists Andriy Ovcharenko, Valeriy Stupnytsky, Volodymyr Bobechko and Archpriest Serhiy Chertylin during their detention in March.

The pre-trial investigation process lasted more than six months. During this time, Father Serhiy and Volodymyr managed to get out of the pre-trial detention centre on bail. Andriy and Valery have been staying in detention all this time.

As Strana reports, the resource managed to contact one of the defendants in the case, and he confirmed having received the indictment for familiarization.

According to him, the SBU investigators ‘simply copied’ there the text of the suspicion put forward back in the spring. At the same time, no investigative actions have been carried out with journalists since then. “There was not a single interrogation,” said the interlocutor of the edition.

As a result, they are charged with four criminal articles – state treason, collaborationism, violation of equal rights of citizens and creation of a criminal organization.

The SBU said that “the indictments against the detainees have now been sent to court. The perpetrators face life imprisonment with confiscation of property."

The UOJ previously wrote about the case of the Orthodox journalists: Execute not pardon.

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