MP urges DESS to seize Zymne Monastery from UOC
Ihor Huz demanded that the UOC's Zymne Monastery be stripped of its state registration through the courts following a DESS investigation into alleged ties to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ukrainian MP Ihor Huz has called on the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) to investigate the UOC's Zymne Convent in the Volyn region and seek to revoke its state registration through the courts. The lawmaker said that more than 15 MPs had sent a formal appeal to the leadership of DESS and the Ministry of Culture demanding an investigation into the monastery.
According to Huz, if ties to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) are found, the authorities should seek a court order to terminate the religious organization's activities. Although DESS has not yet investigated the monastery, the MP expressed confidence that it has ties to Moscow.
Huz also complained that DESS had still not launched an investigation into the Zymne Monastery since his previous appeal. He cited what he called the "successful cases" involving the Korets and Kremenets monasteries, the latter of which the Supreme Court previously ordered transferred to the state, forcing the UOC to leave.
As the UOJ previously reported, Huz had earlier threatened the nuns of the Zymne Monastery during a "service" led by Epifaniy Dumenko, warning that the state was prepared to "take action."
