Metropolitan Feodosy appeals to President to release Yan Taksiur

Metropolitan Feodosy of Cherkasy and Kaniv recorded a video appeal in which he urged to release the Orthodox writer, poet, publicist and journalist Yan Taksiur.

"Since the old days of Kievan Rus, the clergy have had the right to intercede before the powers that be about convicts and disgraced citizens. Moreover, this was not only the right of metropolitans and bishops but also a duty, especially if the disgraced person was elderly or his health was in danger. Therefore, using my ancient right, I, Metropolitan Feodosy of Cherkasy and Kaniv, appeal to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, to the power structures and everyone concerned. I request that the Ukrainian writer, poet and journalist Yan Taksiur be released from the Lukyanovka remand prison," said Bishop Feodosy.

"I have known this man for many years, he is a true patriot of his Motherland. And to end up in prison at the seventieth year of life with cancer is terrible. Anyone who knows him will never be able to believe that he is, firstly, a villain and, secondly, that he must be so severely isolated from society, from his family, from doctors and lawyers. His personality as a journalist could testify to the attitude towards freedom of speech in our country before the whole world. And if he, God forbid, dies in prison, his death will be an indelible stain on all those involved," said the Metropolitan.

"I grieve and ask you to let Yan Taksiur go home or to hospital. If necessary, we are ready to bail him out. Let us preserve the life of an honest, intelligent and modest man. There are hardly any of such people left now," the bishop concluded his appeal to Vladimir Zelensky.

As reported, Yan Taksiur, an Orthodox journalist and host of the First Cossack channel, has been in a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv since March 10 without medical and legal assistance. His health condition has deteriorated significantly recently. Earlier, Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol spoke in defence of Taksiur, and the journalist's daughter Maria Trandafilova appealed to the President to release her father.