On May 29, an appeal hearing was scheduled to take place against the decision of the investigating judge to extend the detention of Orthodox journalist Andrei Ovcharenko. Or revising this unjustified preventive measure to a more lenient one.

For the second month now, the journalist and human rights activist has been in jail on false charges. The authorities, represented by the SSU, are persecuting Andrei Ovcharenko for performing technical work on the UOJ website. One of the few resources in Ukraine that was not afraid to objectively cover the terror that the authorities launched against Ukrainian Christians, believers of the UOC.

On May 29, the judge decided to postpone the hearings “due to the failure of the detainee to be brought to the courtroom.”

This was justified by the fact that the escort of the journalist was not agreed upon with the investigator. That is, the investigator itself sabotaged the escort of the suspect so court took advantage of this reason to postpone the consideration of the preventive measure.

This means forcing Andrei to continue to sit in the pre-trial detention center.

Lawyers emphasize that this is not the first time that an investigator has failed to act in terms of organizing an escort.

At the same time, in all trials carried out on the initiative of the investigation and prosecution, detainees are delivered on time.

Lawyers consider such actions to be a violation of the rights of suspects to a fair hearing of the appeal.

And this is certainly a deliberate act, in our opinion. It is not beneficial for the prosecution to consider fake cases on their merits. After all, it is already possible, without guilt or evidence, to punish journalists with detention thanks to the dirty manipulations of the court.

The reprisal is simply an exemplary reprisal and mockery.

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#UOJ #UOC #persecution_in_Ukraine #freedom_of_belief #freedom_of_speech
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