Сourt orders Volyn RSA to provide data on registration of Sadov community

The Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, Sadov. Photo: from open sources

On January 14, 2020, the Volyn District Administrative Court upheld the claim of the priest of the Volyn Eparchy regarding the inaction of the State Registrar of the Department of Culture for Religions in the Volyn region, reports the eparchy’s press service.

The reason for hearing the case was the lawsuit of Archpriest Vladimir Meles, who, after the seizure of the UOC Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Sadov, performs services in a church house.

The rector of the seized church made an official request to the State Registrar for the confirmation or refutation of the fact of amendments to the constituent documents of a legal entity – a religious community. The request was sent on August 28, 2019, but the State Registrar did not provide a response to the request of the priest.

During the court session, representatives of the Volyn RSA submitted an order issued by Alexander Savchenko, the former head of the RSA, that all information on the re-registration of religious communities and constituent documents should be kept confidential.

Nevertheless, the court considered the actions of officials a violation of the current legislation in the field of access to public information.

The court recognized the inaction of the Volyn RSA as unlawful in connection with Archpriest Vladimir Meles’ request No. 1 dated August 17, 2019, and ordered the Department of Culture for Religions and nationalities of the Volyn RSA to consider the request in the manner determined by the Law of Ukraine “On Public Information”.

As reported earlier, on September 4, 2019, at the request of the OCU community, two young people came to Archpriest Vladimir Meles to "talk in a good way about the eviction" of his family from the church house. At the same time, they warned that they could talk “hard”, threatening grenades.

We recall that the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Sadov became the target for seizure by raiders from the OCU on February 2, 2019. On March 31, OCU supporters attacked the son of Archpriest Vladimir Meles, sixteen-year-old Vasily, and on April 6 they tried to forcibly evict Father Vladimir from the church house, where he lives and is officially registered with his wife, minor children and a young grandson. Law enforcement authorities ignored the priest’s statement, but on April 16, 2019, the Lutsk City District Court of the Volyn Region ordered the police to investigate the offence.

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