Court leaves abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra of the UOC-MP in custody

This was reported to Suspilne Donbas by Anastasia Medvedeva, a Donetsk Region Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman.

"At the hearing, the court rejected the defence, agreeing with the prosecutor's arguments, and left the suspect in custody," the spokeswoman said.

The Metropolitan will remain in custody until June 22.

"The defence asked the judges to release Metropolitan Arseniy on bail or determine the bail amount. By writing appropriate appeals, 10 MPs of Ukraine from different factions expressed their readiness to become guarantors of the bishop," the Sviatogorsk Lavra website wrote.

"In his speech, Metropolitan Arseniy pleaded not guilty to disclosing the locations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The bishop also explained the purpose of the speech, the video recording of which is now being blamed. "I asked the people standing in the cathedral to pray that the situation at the checkpoints would be resolved and that the pilgrims who were not allowed to enter could finally get there," stated the abbot of the monastery," the Sviatogorsk Lavra said in a statement.

As reported previously, Metropolitan Arseniy, the abbot of the Sviatohirsk Lavra of the UOC-MP, was suspected of disclosing information about the location of the Defence Forces checkpoints in the Kramatorsk district of Donetsk region during the Liturgy in September 2023.

In particular, according to investigators, during his sermon, he told the faithful about the location of checkpoints and units of the Armed Forces, the Security Service, the National Police and the Defence Forces of Ukraine on the territory of the Sviatohirsk community.

The hierarch of the UOC-MP was taken into custody and a pre-trial restraint of detention without the alternative of bail was imposed.

Metropolitan Arseniy was notified of suspicion for disclosing information about the movement and deployment of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, if they could be identified on the ground, under Part 2 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He faces imprisonment for a term of five to eight years.

At the hearing on 13 May, where the Metropolitan appealed against the preventive measure for the first time, he stated that he did not admit the charges.