Court declares unlawful the "re-registration" of UOC community in Stavnitsa
A year after OCU activists voted to “transfer” the UOC community in Stavnitsa to the new church structure, the court ruled the actions of the authorities to be unlawful.
On February 3, 2020, the Commercial Court of the city of Kyiv declared unlawful and cancelled the order of the Khmelnytsky RSA on the registration of the statute of the religious community of the St. Demetrius Church in the village of Stavnitsa of the Letichev District of the Khmelnytsky Eparchy of the UOC in the new edition as part of the OCU, reports the lawyer Yaroslav Pasechnik, who defended the rights of the UOC believers in court.
“We saw the independence of judges in Kyiv when they drew attention to the offences committed by the authorities and made a balanced and fair decision,” said Pasechnik.
According to the lawyer, the court decision will come into force after the expiration of the appeal period, if the representatives of the Regional State Administration do not appeal. This period is 20 days.
“The Administration stated that they would not appeal,” the representative of the UOC added.
The Church of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki in the village of Stavnitsa is closed till the court decision enters into force.
We recall that on February 6, 2019, residents of the village of Stavnitsa, who have no relation to the religious community, held a vote on the “transfer” of the community of the St. Demetrius Church to the OCU.
On April 12, 2019, the Khmelnytsky RSA reviewed the papers prepared by the activists of the new church structure and registered a new edition of the statute of the religious organization as part of the OCU.
