Lawyer Nikita Chekman, in an interview with the Dialogue.TUT portal, answered, in particular, the question of whether something is being done to give a legal assessment of the religious studies conclusion made by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience.
“In accordance with the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, the SSEFC has the right to conduct religious examinations, but there is no normative act regulating the procedure for their conduct. There is a “Law of Ukraine on Forensic Expertise”, which, by analogy, should be applied. It clearly spells out the procedure for conducting examinations, what should be the qualifications of experts, etc.,” the lawyer said.
However, according to Archpriest Nikita, “in the case of the SSEFC, we see what kind of “experts” were. These are people who, even before the moment of their so-called expertise, expressed a negative attitude towards the UOC. This can be traced from open sources – in particular from social networks where “experts” published posts with value judgments about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Therefore, there is no reason to consider their conclusion objective.”
“And one more thing. Why was the examination carried out on the basis of the statutory documents of the ROC? Sorry, this is the same as determining the legal status of the occupied Ukrainian territories according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. changes. So on what basis was the analysis of the charter of the Russian Orthodox Church carried out? The Russian Orthodox Church can write anything for itself – this is their right, “the lawyer emphasized.
According to the lawyer of the UOC, there is a judicial prospect of appealing against this examination.
“Since it violates the rights of all religious organizations that are part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a religious association, I, as a representative of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, are now carrying out certain preparatory actions,” said Nikita Chekman.
He also added that the lawyers “sent a request to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience for all the materials related to the examination: protocols and video recordings of the meetings of the expert group, because all meetings were held under full video recording. We received confirmation from the SSEFC that these materials are being prepared, officially paid for the production of the necessary copies – and these are 200 pages and sources-carriers of information with video recordings.
“As soon as we receive it, we will begin to work out and determine the next steps to appeal this examination,” the lawyer assured.
