We call on the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), the UN Committee to Protect Journalists, the World Association of Newspapers, ARTICLE 19, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Journalists, the South East European Network for the Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM), the World Association of Newspapers, the World Press Freedom Committee, and other organizations that are concerned about freedom of expression and human rights to react to the iniquity that is currently taking place in Ukraine against journalists, human rights defenders, and priests solely because they are Orthodox, socially active believers of the UOC.
According to our information, the detained journalists will be held in custody pending trial, which may not happen anytime soon. And there is no certainty about the objectivity of these trials due to the explicit state order for these criminal cases.
We are confident that the sole purpose of detaining representatives of our organizations is to prevent them from fulfilling their professional duties and to silence them.
The actions of the Ukrainian authorities constitute a blatant and aggressive attack on freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and human rights. Those people were taken on the eve of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine's adoption of a law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which indicates per se that the concepts of "democracy" and "human rights" in our country are in deep crisis. Parliamentarism itself is degrading, with deputies openly intimidated into voting "correctly", in favor of the ban.
That is why we believe that the arrest of press representatives and human rights defenders is aimed at concealing and successfully pushing through the criminal plan against the Church that the Ukrainian authorities are hatching.
The criminal cases presented by the SBU as grounds for the arrests are fabricated and have no evidential basis.
We appeal to international organizations, fellow journalists, and all those who uphold the fundamental principles of civilized society – freedom of speech and human rights – to react to the detention and persecution of employees of the Union of Orthodox Journalists, the "First Cossack" edition, the Public Union "Myriany", and the human rights initiative "Center for Legal Protection".

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#religious_discrimination
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The authorities demolished the temple without waiting for the inspection of the Ministry of Justice, where the lawyers of the UOC had filed a complaint.
UOC attorney Father Nikita Chekman wrote on his Facebook page that the nighttime demolition of the Tithe (Desiatynny) Monastery was illegal because no documents regarding the dismantling of the shrine were included in the Unified Enforcement Proceedings Register.
The religious community also did not receive any documents regarding this matter.
"In general, the involvement of an economic entity by a state executor was illegal. Because by law, such actions are possible only for an advance payment by the claimant. And even then, if provided for by a court decision. But we see that in our country laws do not apply, and the authorities have decided to commit blatant blasphemy," Chekman said.
In addition, the KozalTv1 Telegram channel published a response from the Central Interregional Department of the Ministry of Justice to the complaint from the attorneys of the Tithe Monastery about the illegal actions of the state executor.
"We ask to objectively and comprehensively verify the facts set out in the appeal, establish the causes and conditions that contributed to the violations, and urgently take measures to eliminate them. In case of recognizing it as unfounded, clarify the procedure for appealing the decision made on it," officials of the department wrote.
At the same time, the response to the results of the verification should be given by May 24, however, the demolition of the church took place without waiting for this verification.
As reported by the UOJ, in Kyiv, on the night of May 17, the police cordoned off the territory of the National Museum of Ukraine, and the Vladimir-Olga Church on the territory of the Tithe Monastery was demolished by bulldozers.

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#freedomforUOC
#religious_discrimination
#truth_about_Ukraine

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