Following SSU’s investigation, court passes first sentence on UOC-MP metropolitan: cleric pleads guilty

For the first time in Ukraine, Kropyvnytskyi District Court sentenced a high-ranking cleric of moscow patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, former head of Kirovohrad Diocese, metropolitan Iosaf, following an investigation by the SSU. He and the diocese secretary pled guilty as charged.

Thus, the court and the accused themselves fully confirmed the evidence collected by the SSU.

They were convicted under Articles 28.2 and 161.1 of the CCU (violation of equality of citizens based on their race, nationality, region, religious beliefs, disability and other grounds, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy).

Given their cooperation with the investigation, the court sentenced them to 3 years of imprisonment with a probationary period of 2 years with a ban to hold positions of heads of religious departments and dioceses for a year.

Earlier, the clergymen publicly praised the occupation of part of Ukraine and incited inter-religious hatred in the region for the benefit of the aggressor state.

According to the investigation, the bishop was close to moscow patriarch kirill, with whom he coordinated subversive activities against Ukraine.

To carry them out, the metropolitan was in constant contact with the head of the russian orthodox church and fulfilled his instructions to justify russia’s aggression and occupation of Ukraine’s territories.

Instructions from moscow came in the form of written circulars and during personal meetings in russia.

The metropolitan involved the diocesan secretary in the unlawful activity.

On their instructions, hostile propaganda literature was distributed to people in the churches of the community. The materials were produced in thousands of copies in printing houses of the aggressor state.

In these books, russian ‘authors’ questioned Ukrainian statehood and praised the kremlin regime.

During the searches in the diocese, the law enforcement found a large number of pro-russian printed material and documents with evidence of correspondence with moscow ‘supervisors’.

The SSU Office in Kirovohrad region conducted the investigation under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office.