On April 8, 2024, a court hearing was held on the motion to change the measure of restraint for the correspondent of the “Union of Orthodox Journalists” Valery Stupnitsky, detained on March 12, 2024 by SBU officers in the so-called case of Orthodox media. Stupnitsky is accused of inciting religious hatred and is being held in a pre-trial detention center. This is reported by the UOJ.

It is reported that the lawyer of Valery Stupnitsky asked the court to change the measure of restraint, because the defendant, being a father of three children, does not plan to hide from the investigation. Moreover, Valery has health problems that complicate his stay in the pre-trial detention center, especially given the inadequate conditions of detention.

“Stupnitsky is in a cell where the number of prisoners exceeds the number of beds on which they can sleep. Therefore, the UOJ journalist has to sleep 4 hours a day and mostly during the daytime. Because of this, he has already lost consciousness several times,” – the report says.

Despite all the arguments of the defense, the court did not take into account the request of the lawyer and left the measure of restraint for Valery Stupnitsky unchanged. He will continue to serve his sentence in the pre-trial detention center.

It should be noted that a similar decision was made on April 8, 2024 in the Court of Appeal of the city of Kyiv, where a hearing was held in the case of Archpriest Serhiy Chertilin of the UOC, detained by representatives of the SSU as part of measures against the employees of the Orthodox Internet publications “Union of Orthodox Journalists” and “First Cossack”. The defense filed a complaint against the measure of restraint in the form of detention in the pre-trial detention center. However, the court left the priest in custody.