Court of Appeal refuses to unseal UOC church in Ptichya

The police are on duty day and night around the Holy Assumption Church in Ptichya

Hearings in the Rovno Regional Court of Appeal on the cancellation of the ruling of the investigating judge of the Rovno City Court on arresting the Holy Assumption Church of the village of Ptichya in the Dubno district were held on May 2, reports a UOJ correspondent.

The religious community of the UOC was denied an appeal.

Prosecutor Andrei Yaroschuk and police investigator Maxim Tischuk said that they considered the arrest of the church legitimate, since "the temple is under arrest because the community of the UOC-KP threatened to burn the church if it is opened by the believers of the UOC".

The judge of the Rovno Regional Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of the UOC religious community of vlg. Ptichya and issued a ruling that the decision is not subject to appeal in cassation.

The lawyer of the religious community of the UOC Raisa Prikhodko explained in the appeal that "the decision to arrest is groundless, issued with the violation of procedural and substantive law of Ukraine, and there are no legal grounds for arresting the property of the community of the Holy Assumption parish".

On April 2, 2018, the community of the UOC won a trial on lifting the arrest of the Holy Assumption Church in the village of Ptichya in the Dubno district of the Rovno region. On the same day, supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate in camouflage and balaclavas seized the church. They said that after the court had cancelled the temporary arrest of the temple in Ptichya, they decided to "come into their native temple, which they had built".

Earlier, the lawyer of the NGO "Public Advocacy" Markian Vysotsky said that the decision of the Rovno City Court does not solve the problem of interfaith confrontation in the village of Ptichya and is illegal.

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