Lavra abbot’s lawyer explains who and how made bail for Metropolitan Pavel

Fr Nikita Chekman, the lawyer for the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said that the bail of over 33 million Ukrainian hryvnias for Metropolitan Pavel was collected by millions of believers from all over Ukraine, with donations made by around a thousand individuals. He made these remarks in an interview with the YouTube channel "Serhiy Shevchuk".

The abbot’s lawyer explained that the money was collected by parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) from various regions of Ukraine. In some cases, donation boxes were set up in community churches to collect funds.

According to him, individuals also directly deposited money into the accounts specified in the court order.

However, as the lawyer noted, in some cases, banks refused to accept payments from individuals and returned the money, citing "financial monitoring restrictions" as the reason.

Father Nikita believes that in such cases, there was interference from administrative authorities to prevent the bail from being paid for Metropolitan Pavel.

"Even more was paid than was required. The question of refunding these funds is currently being resolved. People sent us receipts, and we repeatedly requested for information to determine the total amount received. As of August 7, when Metropolitan Pavel was released (from detention – Ed.), there was a significant amount of overpayment," he added.

At the same time, the lawyer of the Lavra abbot stated that the court exceeded the permissible bail amount when determining the bail, and the bail amount itself was determined by prosecutors and the court based on the documents prepared by unknown legal firms.

As reported, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was released from the detention centre on bail.