MP: Bishop Arseniy is being slowly killed in SIZO – a disgrace for Ukraine

Heorhiy Mazurashu. Photo: Mazurashu’s Facebook page

Member of Parliament from the Servant of the People faction, Heorhiy Mazurashu, said in a comment to Liberty UA that the authorities are slowly killing Sviatohirsk Metropolitan Arseniy in pretrial detention, and that the accusations against him are fabricated.

According to the MP, the hierarch is “almost a saintly person,” yet he is being kept behind bars despite serious health problems.

“In effect, they are slowly killing him there, in the detention center. And this, too, is a disgrace for our country. I do not understand what sense there is in throwing a clergyman, a monk with such authority among believers, into a detention center on such a, to put it mildly, far-fetched charge. If you are genuinely afraid of something, put him under house arrest, show society the evidence. What kind of habit has developed in our country? Law enforcement invents things, pulls suspicions out of thin air, throws people into detention centers, and simply mocks them. Especially when this is a clergyman,” Mazurashu said.

He stressed that the accusations that the metropolitan allegedly gave up positions do not stand up to criticism. “He is accused of supposedly surrendering positions, whereas in reality he was simply informing laypeople: keep in mind that there are checkpoints in such-and-such a village. In my view, there were absolutely no signs that he was handing over any positions – at that time, in virtually all populated areas, more or less, there were checkpoints,” the MP said.

Mazurashu sharply criticized law enforcement officers whom he accused of mocking the hierarch.

“You would have to be some kind of… I don’t know – not believing in God or in anything at all. It feels as though they came from another planet. They must have parents, relatives. How were they raised? With what principles did they grow up, that they allow themselves to act like this?” the MP emphasized.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the court extended Metropolitan Arseniy’s detention for another 60 days.

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