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1 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Kiev’s Shevchenkivskii district court has ordered Metropolitan Pavel Lebed of the Orthodox Church to be placed under house arrest for a period of two months for justifying the Russian invasion.
The measure has been requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, which has registered Lebed’s address in kyiv. In addition, an electronic location bracelet must arrive and he has been prohibited from addressing his faithful on social networks, reports the Ukrainian portal Mind.
The priest is accused of discriminating against citizens based on their nationality and religious beliefs (Article 161 of the Criminal Code) and of justifying Russian aggression against Ukraine (Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code).
Lebed is also the abbot of the kyiv Cave Monastery. It is not the first time that the authorities have tried to evict Lebed and his followers from the religious premises.
Metropolitan Pavel has denied the accusations and maintains that the Kiev authorities have no legal reason to expel the monks and staff from the monastery, the BBC reports. This Saturday he has appeared before the court and has denounced that it is “a political case”. “I have never been on the side of the aggression. I am against the aggression. And now I am in Ukraine. This is my land,” he stressed.
On Friday hundreds of supporters gathered at the Pechersk Lavra monastery to express their rejection of the eviction.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church formally depended on Moscow, but after the invasion it criticized the Russian military operation and finally declared its independence in May after centuries subservient to Russia.
