A Metropolitan of the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP) was sentenced to a few years in jail Friday after pleading responsible earlier than a Ukrainian courtroom to “violating the equality of residents.” The Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU) stated that Metropolitan Iosaf, often known as Petro Huben, distributed pro-Krelmin Russian literature that questioned Ukrainian sovereignty in coordination with the Russian Orthodox Church and its head, Patriarch Kiril.
Iosaf, who previously led the UOC-MP’s Kirovohrad Eparchy (or diocese), was additionally given two years of probation and banned from spiritual management for one yr.
The bishop was accused of violating Article 121 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, which prohibits:
Willful actions inciting nationwide, racial or spiritual enmity and hatred, humiliation of nationwide honor and dignity, or the insult of residents’ emotions in respect to their spiritual convictions, and likewise any direct or oblique restriction of rights, or granting direct or oblique privileges to residents primarily based on race, shade of pores and skin, political, spiritual and different convictions, intercourse, ethnic and social origin, property standing, place of residence, linguistic or different traits.
The utmost time period of imprisonment for this crime is 5 years when dedicated by an official and accompanied by “violence, deception or threats.”
The sentencing comes amid a standoff between the Ukrainian authorities and the UOC-MP. The Ukrainian authorities has repeatedly accused the UOC-MP of supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In April, a Kyiv courtroom gave the abbot of the government-owned Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, 60 days of home arrest for undermining Ukrainian sovereignty and selling spiritual enmity. Pavel’s arrest got here after UOC-MP clerics refused to depart the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which is revered as Ukraine’s holiest orthodox website, when the Ukrainian authorities ordered them out in March.
The UOC-MP is the Russian-affiliated orthodox church in Ukraine. It claimed independence from the Russian Orthodox Church in Might 2022, however its independence is disputed by Patriarch Kiril. It isn’t to be confused with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was shaped in 2018 and is unbiased.
