Authorities are slowly killing Metropolitan Arseniy – laity movement

Metropolitan Arseniy has languished behind bars for a year and a half. Photo: Sviatohirsk Lavra

The head of the Rivne branch of the civic movement Myriany (Laity), Tetiana Tsaruk, published on YouTube an emotional statement in which she not only voiced grave concern for the health of the abbot of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, Metropolitan Arseniy, but also sharply denounced the state of justice in Ukraine.

“I am deeply worried about the health of Metropolitan Arseniy. And I am also worried about the state of justice in Ukraine. What is happening to the bishop gives a very clear picture of our judicial system,” Tsaruk began.

She reminded that Metropolitan Arseniy has been held in pre-trial detention for a year and a half as if he were a dangerous criminal. Recently, he was rushed to a hospital in Dnipro. A cardiologist and an arrhythmologist examined him and issued a grim diagnosis – the hierarch urgently needs surgery and a full medical evaluation.

“Let me repeat: the trial is still ongoing. The bishop’s guilt has not been proven in any way, and the public is outraged by the absurdity of the charges. Yet this respected hierarch, known throughout the Orthodox world, has been kept behind bars since the very first day of his indictment – since April 25, 2024. For a year and a half, they have kept a monk, a bishop, the abbot of a shrine renowned throughout the Orthodox world, in a cage. For what? For a sermon!” Tsaruk said bitterly.

She stressed that the court hearings are constantly postponed, endlessly delayed, while the measure of restraint is simply prolonged again and again in gross violation of due process.

“Everything is being done as if the court and the authorities are deliberately tormenting Metropolitan Arseniy – torturing him through unlawful detention. They perfectly understand there are no legal grounds for sentencing him or imprisoning him under the law, so they drag out the process and mock him. That’s what it looks like to me. A wonderful method, isn’t it? You don’t need to prove anything – and the bishop is already in a cage,” Tsaruk remarked with cutting irony.

“Is Metropolitan Arseniy really such a dangerous mastermind, terrorist, or criminal that it’s impossible to give him proper medical treatment?” she asked sharply.

“In fact, the judges and prosecutors overseeing this process are consciously destroying the bishop’s health. They are slowly killing him. To me, it’s an unspeakable shame, grief, and horror that such a thing is happening today to a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And there is no way to stop it, no way to save him, to at least examine him or provide him with the necessary care at his age and in the conditions he’s kept in,” Tsaruk declared.

She reminded that since the outbreak of war in the East, Metropolitan Arseniy had for years tirelessly helped people in need, those who suffered from the conflict.

“In my view, the Sviatohirsk Lavra under Metropolitan Arseniy became a true island of hope, a haven of peace – a refuge for thousands upon thousands of people amid the fire of war. The humanitarian mission of the monastery under his leadership was incomparable to anything the state was doing at that time,” Tsaruk emphasized.

According to the investigation, Metropolitan Arseniy allegedly revealed the locations of Ukrainian military checkpoints near the Lavra in one of his sermons. Tsaruk presented fragments of that sermon to show the real context of his words.

“To imagine that mentioning these checkpoints – in the context of the persecution of our Church, on camera, in a recorded sermon – was some kind of veiled attempt to disclose the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine… I can hardly comment on such twisted logic. It seems to me someone was simply ordered, retroactively, to dig up something on the bishop – to put him behind bars, to silence another abbot. Out of the three great Lavras of our Church in Ukraine, they have already locked up the second one,” Tsaruk commented.

“At the same time, Maryana Bezuhla repeatedly leaks internal military information to the media, discrediting the high command – effectively serving as an aid to Russian strikes against Ukrainian forces. Everyone sees it, the public is outraged, even soldiers are indignant. And where is she? In the Verkhovna Rada. Living comfortably, working, speaking freely. Strange, isn’t it? No searches, no charges. She’s free, she’s in Parliament. And Metropolitan Arseniy, a sick and frail man, is in a detention cell, denied treatment,” Tsaruk said indignantly.

She also recalled the case of Tetiana Krupa, the former head of the regional medical commission in Khmelnytskyi, accused by the State Bureau of Investigation of taking bribes from draft dodgers amounting to 137 million hryvnias and hoarding six million dollars in cash at home. The court repeatedly reduced her bail from 500 to 20 million until she was released on a convenient sum.

“Tell me, why is she free – and the bishop is in jail?” Tsaruk asked pointedly.

“Everything I’ve said – these are my thoughts, my feelings. I want to do something to help Metropolitan Arseniy because I’m deeply worried about him, about his health. I want to see him free. I want him to receive proper medical care. There are people, even Members of Parliament, ready to take him on personal bail,” Tsaruk appealed to viewers.

She urged everyone who supports Metropolitan Arseniy to express it publicly: “If the authorities, prosecutors, and judges think there’s no support for Metropolitan Arseniy among Orthodox believers – then let’s show them otherwise in the comments.”

“Why is this man – a bishop, a hierarch, who stood in the very epicenter of the most tragic events in Ukraine’s modern history, who was there for people, who helped and comforted them – why is he now in prison? Because he stood with the people of Donbas throughout all the years of war? Is that his ‘crime’? Is this how the state rewards him – the man thanks to whom countless lives were saved? Metropolitan Arseniy deserves freedom. He deserves proper treatment,” concluded Tetiana Tsaruk, head of the Myriany Rivne branch.

Earlier, UOJ reported that Metropolitan Arseniy requires urgent heart surgery.

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