UOL: Zolochiv authorities lost court on banning construction to UOC priest

Radicals destroy with sledgehammers the fence of the priest’s house of the UOC in Zolochiv, 2020.Photo: website of the National Corps

The Administrative Court did not satisfy the claim of the Zolochiv authorities, which demanded that the repair and construction work on the land plot belonging to the family of a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church be declared illegal. The lawyers of the Union of Orthodox Lawyers (UOL), representing the interests of the UOC community in Zolochiv, reported this in their tg-channel.

“Lviv Regional Administrative Court in case No. 380/9072/20 (proceedings P/380/9284/20) refused to satisfy an administrative claim of the Zolochiv City Council against the Department of Urban Planning, Architecture, Housing and Communal Services and Environmental Protection of the Zolochiv Regional State Administration, 3rd person without independent demands on the defendant's side: Olga Shakhoval (wife of the UOC priest Maksim Yoenko), on the recognition and cancellation of the construction passport and notification of the start of construction work,” the lawyers said.

The UOL recalled that the Zolochiv City Council, showing a biased attitude towards the clergyman of the UOC and his family, applied to the administrative court with a lawsuit to prevent the reconstruction and construction of their own house on their own land plot at 9 Trush Street.

“By this decision, the court actually confirmed that the interference of local authorities in the process of reconstruction by the family of the priest of their own house was groundless,” the human rights activists stated.

As reported by the UOJ, earlier the Zolochiv authorities appealed to the Zolochiv District Court, trying to achieve the dismantling of the fence around the house of priest Maksim Yoenko, who refused to do it voluntarily in accordance with the order of the city administration dated July 13 this year.

Having lost the court, the Zolochiv City Council announced it would seek a positive decision in this case in the administrative court.

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