Police ignore Lavra's report of hate speech by Reserve head

Director General of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" Maksym Ostapenko. Photo: the Reserve’s Facebook page

Employees of the Pechersk District Police Department did not respond to the statement of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra about the commission of a criminal offence under Part 2 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine by the Director General of the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" Maksym Ostapenko, reports the lawyer of the monastery Archpriest Nikita Chekman on his Telegram channel.

"The Pechersk Police Department again ignored the statement on the commission of a criminal offence – the information was not entered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations,” said Fr. Nikita. “Today (13 February, - Ed.), a complaint against inaction was filed with the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv. We are waiting for a fair judicial decision".

As reported, on 30 January 2024, in an interview with Ukrainian Radio, Maksym Ostapenko made a number of statements against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which, according to Lavra's lawyers, should be qualified as "willful actions inciting national, racial or religious enmity and hatred, r the insult of citizens' feelings in respect to their religious convictions, any restriction of rights or granting privileges to citizens based on religious convictions, committed by an official".

The lawyers filed a statement with the police on 6 February. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, law enforcers had to enter information about the offence into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations within 24 hours.

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