The draft law No 8371 on banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was voted in the first reading, provides for a mandatory court procedure to prove the connection of a religious organization with an aggressor country. This was reported by the press service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with reference to the words of the deputy head of the parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, MP Yevgeniya Kravchuk, Ukrinform reports.

“We were quite a long time coming to the vote for this bill. It is worth noting that the document introduces a procedure that also includes a judicial review of the issue. This is very important, because other options would not have gone through the European Court of Human Rights”, –  she said.

According to the MP, the document should clearly spell out the criteria that are determined during the religious examination.

“The connection of a religious organization with the aggressor country must be proved, that it is managed from the aggressor country, while giving an opportunity to break this connection. And this is one of the myths that the bill literally writes down which church should be banned”, – Kravchuk explained.

At the same time, a member of the permanent delegation to PACE informed that the UOC has the opportunity to actually renounce the canonical connection with the Russian Orthodox Church, “and then everything will be fine”. But in case the religious organization “does not renounce the connection with the aggressor state”, then a lawsuit will be sent to court, and after the relevant decision the activity of the religious organization will be terminated.

Kravchuk added that this is a rather lengthy process, but a clearly laid out procedure. Parliamentarians now have 14 days to submit amendments and there are plans to set up a working group to consider them.

“Our Committee promises the most inclusive process possible, we will consider the edits, for the wording of which there are 14 days. I think we will also hold meetings with representatives of the Council of Churches”, – Kravchuk summarized.