The staff of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission met with Metropolitan of Tulchyn and Bratslav Jonathan, who was recently sentenced by the Vinnytsia city court to 5-year imprisonment with confiscation of property. This is reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

During the communication Metropolitan Jonathan answered the questions of the mission staff. The attention of human rights activists was drawn to the trial against the hierarch of the UOC, which received wide publicity due to the fact that the Primate and hierarchs of the Local Churches spoke out in defense of Metropolitan Jonathan.

The hierarch himself does not plead guilty to the anti-state crimes he is accused of. According to lawyers, the conviction of Metropolitan of Tulchyn and Bratslav Jonathan (Yeletsky) is unlawful, and the court verdict is knowingly illegal and should be reviewed and overturned by the court of appeal, because the criminal proceedings were carried out with a deliberate violation of the law.