Kiev, November 7, 2024
Photo: spzh.live
Two reporters from the Union of Orthodox Journalists will soon be released from detention in Kiev, where they have been held for just under 8 months.
Yesterday, November 6, the Shevchenko Court of Kiev made a decision to change the preventive measure for the two UOJ employees, Valery Stupnitsky and Andrei Ovcharenko, reports the UOJ.
Granting the defense’s motion, the judge allowed for an alternative preventive measure in the form of bail in the amount of 908,000 hryvnias ($21,900) for Andrei Ovcharenko and 908,400 hryvnias ($21,910) for Valery Stupnitsky.
In March of this year, six journalists from the UOJ and human rights activists were arrested and placed in an SBU (State Security Service) detention center on suspicion of “working for the FSB,” because they report on the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The men, including the rector of a church in Kiev, face the possibility of life in prison.
The press service of the SBU reported only late last month that it had completed its pre-trial investigation against “members of a criminal organization who carried out information sabotage against Ukraine on order of the FSB.” They are charged with four criminal articles: treason, collaboration, violation of the equality of citizens, and the creation of a criminal organization.
Two other detainees, Archpriest Sergei Chertilin and Vladimir Bobechko were already released on bail.
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