Uzhhorod: Police charge UOC rector with "inciting hatred"

The police have reported that Archpriest Dimitriy Sidor, the rector of the UOC Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Uzhhorod, is suspected of committing a crime under part 1 of Article 161 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (inciting religious hatred and enmity, insulting the feelings of citizens with regard to their religious beliefs). The priest said this in a video statement published on the Internet resources of the cathedral.

Father Dimitriy is blamed for a number of his sermons in defence of canonical Orthodoxy and criticizing the actions of the authorities in the religious sphere.

"Everyone, including a priest, has the right to his point of view," said the rector of the cathedral. “But it turns out that for the police, Orthodox people cannot express their point of view to other people who fight with them or threaten them, because it is assessed as inciting inter-faith conflicts and religious hatred".

The priest stressed that he had not "in any of his articles, in any of his personal conversations, in any of his speeches in various programmes, either in writing or verbally" called for incitement of religious enmity and hatred.

"We ask our faithful brothers and sisters to pray that the Lord help us in another attack by the police on the rights of the faithful of the canonical Church, in particular its ministers. In connection with what is happening now to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, with threats against the Pochaiv Monastery, with the seizure of Orthodox churches, we understand that the red lines in Ukraine have been crossed. But we have a reliable helper – the Lord God," the archpriest said.

He also said that he was summoned for questioning by the investigation department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Zakarpattia Region on 20 March.

As reported, in December 2022, SBU officers conducted a search in Uzhhorod's cathedral of the UOC.