The Legal Department denied the information “OCU” on “won cases” in the courts.
On July 7, the media published yet another groundless statement by the head of the OCU, Serhiy Dumenko, that his structure had allegedly won almost all the lawsuits against seized or illegally transferred religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the courts. Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, chairman of the Legal Department of the UOC, has repeatedly denied Dumenko’s manipulative statements on this topic. Therefore, in his comment on July 8, the priest invited “Epiphany” to provide evidence and factual support for such high-profile statements.
“This process has been suspended for certain reasons. Now there is a struggle in the legal field for each community that joined, and there are about 700 of them. Now we are defending ourselves in the legal field. Almost all the lawsuits brought by the Moscow Patriarchate have been lost. We won because the truth is on our side. We defend it and we want everything to happen in accordance with Ukrainian legislation,” the head of the OCU told ukrinform.ua this time.
The Chairman of the Legal Department of the UOC recalled that recently “the OCU”, without waiting for a full court decision, decided to disseminate information about the legality of the transition to their structure of our parish, and even more – to declare, “The Supreme Court made an important decision on the issues of changing religious communities their subordination”. However, it became clear from the decision made public that this is completely untrue.”
“By April of this year, the courts were resolving procedural issues, because it was not precisely defined which court to appeal to people in case of illegal re-registration and seizure of the temple. Already from April 2021, the Supreme Court determined that the believers of the UOC, in the event of the seizure of their churches, could apply for protection to the economic courts. Therefore, it is premature to say today that someone won or lost a case,” the lawyer added.
Archpriest Alexander calls on the head of the OCU to stop spreading blatant disinformation and to provide factual evidence in support of his words, if he has any.
“To be honest, it is surprising that a person who considers himself a clergyman has once again resorted to outright lies and unreasonably wishful thinking. It would be good if he confirmed his words with facts, otherwise it turns out as with the decision of the Grand Chamber, “the court confirmed the legality of the transition of the religious community to the OCU,” but when you read the decision, nothing is said about the legality of the ‘transition’,” noted father Alexander.
