Amsterdam: Metropolitan Arseniy's case is a full-scale crime against humanity
The international human-rights firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP has issued a sharply worded statement regarding the continuing persecution of a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
On December 1, 2025, the London-based law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP released a statement concerning the case against Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk, accusing the Ukrainian authorities of fabrication and systematic attacks on believers. Another court hearing in the cleric’s case is scheduled for tomorrow.
The statement notes that the UOC hierarch has been held in harsh conditions for more than a year. He is accused of disclosing the location of the Ukrainian army after he spoke out against road checkpoints that prevented UOC parishioners from reaching the churches of the Sviatohirsk Lavra. According to the human-rights defenders, the charges were brought months after the sermon, and the checkpoints mentioned in it were never subjected to enemy shelling.
“The imprisonment of this innocent monk is part of the Ukrainian government's ongoing violations of religious freedom,” the statement says. According to the attorneys, the Ukrainian authorities are aggressively pursuing a policy of promoting the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) at the expense of the UOC, resulting in the forcible transfer of parishes from one confession to another.
The human-rights advocates remind readers that in August 2024 Ukraine adopted Law No. 3894, establishing a legal basis for banning the UOC. The law was condemned by the Vatican, Pope Francis, the World Council of Churches, Human Rights Watch, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Robert Amsterdam, founder and managing partner of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, reiterated: “The authorities' conduct in relation the UOC, of which Metropolitan Arseniy's case is emblematic, involves a full-scale crime against humanity. This crime is being committed by President Zelensky and by others involved in state-organized systematic attacks on civilians for their membership in the UOC.”
Amsterdam called on the international community to take note of “the shameful and merciless theatre of the absurd that is going on throughout the Ukrainian courts, orchestrated by the Ukrainian secret police – the SBU.”
Earlier, the UOJ quoted Amsterdam as saying that one cannot speak of democracy in Ukraine while clergy are being tortured.
