Kiev, May 13, 2025
Photo: risu.ua
According to a ruling from the Supreme Court of Ukraine last week, the 5-year imprisonment sentence against His Eminence Metropolitan Jonathan, formerly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Tulchin Diocese, has entered into force and is not subject to further appeal.
As is the case with the state’s persecution of a number of hierarchs and clerics of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Met. Jonathan, 76, was brought up on trumped-up charges of supporting the war in Ukraine and inciting religious enmity. He was initially found guilty in August 2023, and his conviction was upheld by an appeals court in June 2024.
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 last 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.
In November, his lawyers filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, noting that the investigation committed a number of violations of legislation when collecting evidence. Separately, the defense requested that the linguistic examination of the seized Church literature, as well as the examination of the Metropolitan’s computer, be declared inadmissible evidence, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
However, in a ruling published May 8, the Supreme Court rejected His Eminence’s appeal, bringing his sentence of 5 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property into force. At the same time, as far as OrthoChristian is aware, Met. Jonathan is still in Russia.
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