Vinnitsa, Vinnitsa Province, Ukraine, November 5, 2024
tulchin-eparchia.org.ua
His Eminence Metropolitan Jonathan, formerly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Tulchin Diocese, has filed a cassation appeal to the Ukrainian Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the five-year sentence against him.
The Supreme Court has requested the materials of the criminal proceedings from the Vinnitsa City Court for consideration of the appeal, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists, with reference to Glavcom.
As is the case with the state’s persecution of a number of hierarchs and clerics of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Met. Jonathan, 75, was brought up on trumped-up charges of supporting the war in Ukraine and inciting religious enmity. He was initially found guilty last August, and his conviction was upheld by an appeals court in June.
The elderly hierarch, known as a composer of Church music, is also in poor health, which has only been exacerbated by the state’s persecution campaign against him. In November 2022, a month after the searches of his home and diocesan administration, after having been officially notified of state suspicion against him, he had to undergo heart surgery. In March of this year, he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for 10 days.
A few days after the Vinnitsa appeals court upheld his conviction, the Metropolitan was released from Ukraine, and arrived in Moscow (via Belarus) for treatment. According to Russian Orthodox resources, Met. Jonathan was released from Ukraine thanks to the intervention of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.
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