On August 17, the Russian-controlled Belogorsk court held a hearing in the case of Archimandrite Damian of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea, who is being accused of violating Russian law by conducting an allegedly illegal worship service at the OCU church.
This was reported by the Voice of Crimea with reference to the representative of the National Council of Ukrainians of Crimea, Andriy Shchekun.
“Archimandrite Damian arrived in the court with his lawyer. The court session was postponed to August 23, 2021. “The court is summoning two prosecution witnesses and two defense witnesses to the next hearing,” Andriy Shchekun said.
“It is a blatant act of lawlessness. The priest is being accused of simply praying to God at his own home. After all, the territory of the monastery is private, the house is divided into two parts – the one where he lives and the other where he prays. In fact, the priest will be tried for praying at home,” commented Metropolitan Klyment (Kushch) of the Crimean Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
It should be reminded that on August 8 in the occupied Crimea, law enforcers raided an OCU temple during liturgy. The incident took place in the village of Balky, Belogorsky district. According to the reports, these illegal actions were committed by investigators of the Center for Countering Extremism in Simferopol, headed by Major Vladimir Gorevanov.
On August 9, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol initiated criminal proceedings into the fact of illegal obstruction of a religious rite on the territory of the temporarily occupied peninsula (Part 1 of Article 180 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
On August 10, an investigator with the Simferopol Center for Countering Extremism informed Archimandrite Damian that he had been charged with an administrative offense.
