Amsterdam: Authorities may face punishment for offering to swap UOC bishop

Metropolitan Theodosiy and Robert Amsterdam. Photo: cherkasy.church.ua

The head of the international human rights firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Robert Amsterdam, in his letter to Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), drew attention to two of the most egregious cases of wrongful arrest of Church hierarchs.

In his view, these cases illustrate Ukraine's failure in matters of the rule of law and demonstrate a willingness to arrest the innocent on false charges as a means of intimidation.

Robert Amsterdam recalled the illegal arrest of Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk. According to the lawyer, he faces a jail term of eight years for “accurate and innocuous complaints” about pilgrims being unable to reach the monastery due to temporary checkpoints erected in thee region.

Commenting on the arrest of Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy and Kaniv, the human rights advocate paid special attention to the situation in which the hierarch was offered an exchange as a prisoner of war.

“In a grave violation of the laws of war, the SBU has offered Metropolitan Feodosii freedom if he agrees to be sent to Russia in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukraine and its officials may bear responsibility for this illegal offer under the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” stated the UOC lawyer.

As previously reported by the UOJ, American lawyer Robert Amsterdam on August 6, 2024, wrote a letter to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he detailed documents in his possession confirming the existence of a plan to destroy the UOC.

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