Political analyst: Prosecutor General's Office should appeal against the decision of Ternopil regional council to confiscate Pochayiv Lavra

Viacheslav Pikhovshek thinks that the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine is obliged to appeal against the decision of the deputies of the Ternopil regional council to confiscate the UOC Pochayiv Lavra. This decision violates the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, said the Honored Journalist of Ukraine and famous TV presenter to the UOJ.

"In this situation, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's Office and its regional offices must respond. The law on freedom of conscience determines the equality of denominations before the law. If the State based on the rule of law, the Prosecutor of the Ternopil region should appeal against the decision. If there is no appeal by the Prosecutor of Ternopil region, it means that the respected official does not want to do his job and appeal against this decision, and then it should be done by General Prosecutor of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko to date. Because the Pochayiv Lavra, in any way, is not included in the state system and is not subject to the state, it exists by law and in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, according to which the Church is separated from the state. Therefore, there should be a government decision on this issue ", said Pikhovshek.

The journalist also said that the head of the Ternopil Regional State Administration Stepan Barna and the deputies of the regional council are authorized to carry out the laws of Ukraine, which they constantly overlook.

"In my memory this is not the first and, unfortunately, I’m sure not the last action against the Pochayiv Lavra. There is a constant search for external and internal enemies. Despite repeated explanations of the Church officials, in particular, Archpriest Nikolay Danilevich to the "Radio Liberty" yesterday, that the Church is not engaged in any anti-government activities, people simply cannot calm down. In this regard, they are looking for some internal enemy ", said the expert. According to him, the action against the Church will continue until the state bodies authorized by the law of Ukraine begin to respond accordingly.

The analyst believes that in the current situation the Church could take three steps to comply with legal proceedings: to apply to the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, to the relevant committee of Parliament with a request to give a political assessment of the situation and to the OSCE.

We recall that the Ternopil regional council proposed to confiscate the Pochayiv Lavra from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and make a shrine in Kremenets- Pochayiv State Historical-Architectural Reserve in order to "restore the constitutional rights of citizens to freedom of personal philosophy and religion in the temple complex of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate) in Pochayiv ". All 54 deputies of the regional council voted for such a decision on May 12.

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