Legal Department: SBU incites religious enmity and hatred against the UOC

An SBU officer during a search in one of the UOC churches. Photo: wz.lviv.ua

The Security Service of Ukraine is conducting a purposeful information campaign aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Legal Department of the UOC has made this statement in response to the publication by the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) press service regarding the "exposure of clergy who allegedly worked for Russia, sold weapons, and distributed child pornography."

The comment highlights that "by consistently and one-sidedly focusing solely on events related to the activities of the UOC, SBU employees are attempting to shape public opinion among Ukrainian citizens, UOC parishioners, and members of other denominations, all with the sole aim of creating a negative image of the UOC and its clergy."

The UOC's Legal Department does not rule out the possibility that SBU employees are acting "in the interests of third parties" and emphasizes that such activity "is not related to the tasks assigned to the SBU by legislation."

In particular, the lawyers draw attention to the fact that in the latest publication by the SBU press service, the abbreviation "UOC" was modified several times by adding "MP" (Moscow Patriarchate), thus misleading readers and attempting to evoke a negative attitude toward the Church in the context of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

"There is not a single registered church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, and there cannot be one; furthermore, religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church registered in accordance with current legislation do not have provisions in their founding documents regarding affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate and, essentially, cannot be associated with it," states the UOC Legal Department.

Lawyers point out that listing the names of crimes with informational ties to the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) in the absence of court verdicts is "a way of presenting information with the corresponding emotional coloring in order to evoke negative emotions among readers towards the UOC, even though there is no real evidence of such events."

The comment notes that to achieve their goals, the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) manipulates numbers: it mentions the number of criminal proceedings and suspicions regarding UOC clergy, even though suspicion is not a court verdict; it states the number of sentences handed down but doesn't specify to whom they were given; it discusses the ban on entry into Ukraine for 177 ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) clerics who have no connection to the UOC.

"It is quite clear that among the citizens of Ukraine, there are individuals who have committed crimes against Ukraine and have provided assistance or acted in the interests of the aggressors; however, none of the readers will find information, including on the SBU website, about the number of SBU, police, and prosecutor's office employees who switched to the enemy's side, and accordingly, criminal proceedings have been initiated against them. Information regarding representatives of other denominations—Jews, Catholics, Muslims—who have re-registered their religious organizations in temporarily occupied territories and continue their activities, including in Crimea since 2014, is also not covered. The number of criminal proceedings opened against such individuals, as well as the number of suspicions or court verdicts, is not disclosed by the SBU. However, it is a well-known fact that such individuals exist, as do such proceedings, numbering in the hundreds," note the UOC lawyers.

They emphasize that the "actions of SBU employees responsible for the coverage of information are effectively aimed at fanning the flames of religious enmity and hatred, insulting the feelings of citizens due to their religious beliefs."

In the Church's Legal Department, they express hope that the SBU will "cease further one-sided persecution campaigns against the UOC."

As reported by the UOJ, the lawyer of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, stated that one does not label the entire SBU due to the 98% of traitors among its employees in Crimea, while the UOC is labeled for isolated cases of collaboration among its clergy, which is not fair.

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