Abbot of Kyiv monastery searched and served with notice of suspicion by Security Service

Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid), Abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), has said that the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) searched his home on 1 April and served him with a notice of suspicion.

Source: A video address by Lebid, posted by Kremlin-aligned news outlet RIA Novosti; Ukrainska Pravda source in law enforcement agencies; Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’s website. 

Details: Lebid says he was served with a notice of suspicion on 1 April at 07:30, adding that his home was being searched.

Ukrainska Pravda’s sources state that the suspicions were served under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Art. 161 (infringement of the equal rights of citizens based on their race, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, disability and other grounds) and Art. 436 (justification, recognition as legitimate, or denial of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine, or glorification of its participants).

Pavlo claims the SSU told him that he had "cursed the president".

Background:

• In March 2023, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve terminated an agreement with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) that allowed the church to use the premises of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra free of charge. UOC-MP clergy were ordered to vacate all premises of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by the end of March.
• The priests of the UOC-MP should have left the monastery on 29 March after holding their last service there. But the Lavra's abbot, Metropolitan Pavlo, said he did not intend to do that and filed a lawsuit against the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.
• He also openly threatened Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko was "possessed by a diabolical madness".
• On the evening of 29 March, the UOC-MP website reported that the Kyiv Commercial Court had opened proceedings in a case brought by the Holy Dormition Monastery against the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve over the termination of the lease agreement by the National Reserve.

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