The cleric of the Kiev Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Pavel Bely, who was threatened with physical violence by the representative of the OCU, Petr Sokolovsky, appealed to the Pechersk District Court of Kiev. This was reported by the UOJ.

Back in September 2020, the police opened a case against Sokolovsky, who openly threatened the priest of the UOC on social networks. In particular, he warned that Father Pavel had already been “taken under the gun” and called for “getting ready for black soil.” The case was opened under Art. 129 h. 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – “Threat of murder”.

However, on November 17, 2021, from a conversation with the investigator of the Pechersk police department of the GUNP in Kiev about the state of the case, Father Pavel learned that a month earlier, on October 18, the criminal proceedings were closed, without finding any criminal offense in the actions of the accused.

On November 22, a priest of the UOC went to court to appeal this decision.

The priest is convinced that the inaction of law enforcement agencies, which do not show due attention to the facts of threats of murder out of religious intolerance, in fact, “unties their hands” in relation to the commission of offenses on religious grounds.

Earlier it was reported that the “priest” of the OCU, Petro Sokolovsky, threatened the cleric of the Kiev diocese of the UOC with reprisals for the fact that he was “very active”.