On May 19, 2023, a court hearing was held in the Economic Court of the city of Kyiv on the claim of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (monastery) against the National Reserve. Due to the lack of evidence from the reserve, the court adjourned the case to June 7. This was reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC with reference to the Telegram channel of the lawyer of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Archpriest Nikita Chekman.

“At the current meeting, in our opinion, the court objectively once again provided all parties with the opportunity to attach all the evidence confirming the presence or absence of violations allegedly established by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy,” Archpriest Nikita Chekman, the monastery’s lawyer, commented on today’s meeting.

The human rights activist noted that the monastery is taking all possible measures to provide the evidence required by the court. At the same time, the National Reserve and other state bodies that carried out the inspection of the objects of the Lavra do not provide the court with the documents on the basis of which the contract with the monastery was terminated.

“Only conclusions were provided to the court, but there are no documents confirming these conclusions that would accompany these conclusions. That is, there is a conclusion that the monastery seemed to have violated something, but documents that would confirm this, certificates of examination, etc. And the plaintiff’s side is forced to independently apply to all the bodies, to all the commissions that were involved in this check in order to almost object-by-object obtaining the indicated inspection certificates, photographs, etc., ”explained the lawyer.

According to Father Nikita, in order to obtain the evidence necessary for this trial (photographs of the Lavra buildings, certificates of examination, etc.), the monastery is forced to independently apply to all the bodies and commissions that were involved in this verification.

Given this, the court adjourned the hearing of the case to June 7, 2023.

The lawyer of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra expressed hope that “the defendant’s side (the National Reserve, the Ministry of Culture and other bodies) will respond to all requests in time and provide the court with all the documents that were requested by the court from them.”