Kyiv Metropolis Demands Liquidation of SESS Through Court
The lawyers of the UOC consider the creation of the state body illegal and demand its abolition due to pressure on believers.
The Kyiv Metropolitanate has filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, challenging the legality of the establishment of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. This was reported by UOC attorney Archpriest Nikita Chekman.
The lawsuit challenges the government resolutions by which the SSEFС was established and granted authority to shape state policy in the sphere of religion. According to the lawyers, the Cabinet of Ministers transferred to the service functions that, under the law, may belong exclusively to ministries. The plaintiff insists that such actions by the government violate the Constitution of Ukraine and legislation on central executive bodies.
The need for judicial proceedings is driven by the actions of the SSEFC itself against the Kyiv Metropolitanate. The State Service conducted audits of the Metropolitanate's affiliation, issued orders, and filed a lawsuit seeking the liquidation of the legal entity and the transfer of its property to the state.
In the filed lawsuit, the UOC asks the court to declare unlawful and invalid the resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers on the basis of which the SSEFC was established and operates, and to oblige the government to dissolve this body as one that was unlawfully created.
As previously reported by the UOJ, lawyers of the Kyiv Metropolitanate challenged in court the regional council's decision to facilitate the transfer of UOC communities to other confessions.
