Lawyers report violations during court hearing in Metropolitan Arseniy case

A court hearing in the Metropolitan Arseny case in the Dnipro Court of Appeal. Photo: Sviatohirsk Lavra

On November 17, 2025, the continuation of the prosecutor's motion to change the territorial jurisdiction of the case of Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk took place at the Dnipro Appellate Court in Kryvyi Rih. According to the press service of the Sviatohirsk Lavra, the bishop's defender reported several violations during the hearing.

Believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church came to the session to support the archbishop.

The hearing took place despite the fact that the five-day period established by law for considering the motion had already expired. The session began without the participation of Metropolitan Arseniy and one of his lawyers.

According to the defense, in violation of Article 34 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, some lawyers were not officially notified of the date and time of the session in time. Also, the court secretary did not notify or connect to the session the People's Deputy Viktoria Hryb, who submitted a statement of readiness to vouch for the bishop and is a participant in the process. The defense's motion to dismiss the secretary was rejected.

Although this session was already the second on this motion (the first took place on November 13), only at this session did the prosecutor present arguments as to why she has the right to participate in the process. She justified the motion by the worsening security situation in the Donetsk region and the need to transfer the case from the Sloviansk District Court to the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Court. At the same time, a similar motion had already been considered and rejected by the same court on October 8, and at that time the prosecutor opposed its satisfaction.

Metropolitan Arseniy and the lawyer joined later due to the occupation of the detention center room intended for video communication. The court continued the consideration without taking their appearance into account, after which two lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the panel of judges. The court denied two motions, as well as a third one, which, according to the defense, was not filed.

The session took place under conditions of lack of lighting for the participants due to power outages. The defense's request to postpone the consideration to daytime was rejected by the court. After 5:00 PM, when the court's working day ends, the session continued without appropriate orders from the court administration.

The defense also noted a violation of Article 47 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine: when stating the need for confidential communication between lawyers and the defendant, the secretary did not stop the video conference recording and did not disconnect other participants. The video connection with the prosecutor was disconnected only after repeated requests, but the recording continued.

How the session ended is unknown: due to power outages, the lawyers lost the technical ability to participate.

The monastery also reported that the session scheduled for November 18 to consider the appeals against the decision to take Metropolitan Arseniy into custody did not take place, as the case materials from the Soborny Court of Dnipro did not arrive at the Appellate Court.

The date of the new session will be announced after it is set.

Let us recall that Metropolitan Arseniy (Yakovenko) has been in custody since April 2024.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to former MP Ihor Mosiychuk, Zelensky personally ordered Metropolitan Arseniy to be jailed.

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