Source: www.forum18.org
Date: June 4, 2024
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
The criminal trial of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Fr Kostiantyn
Maksimov on charges of "espionage" is due to begin on 6 June after more
than a year in Russian detention. It appears that the trial will take place
at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in the occupied city
of Melitopol. If convicted, the 41-year-old priest faces a prison term of
10 to 12 years.
Seized by Russian occupation forces in May 2023, Fr Kostiantyn is known to
have been held in Investigation Prison No. 2 in the Crimean capital
Simferopol since at least February 2024. It remains unclear if he will be
taken to Melitopol or participate in the trial via videolink from prison in
Crimea (see below).
Fr Kostiantyn's mother, Svetlana Maksimova, would like to be able to attend
the trial. But the long journey through third countries, with no guarantee
she would be allowed in, make such a journey unrealistic, she told Forum 18
(see below).
Fr Kostiantyn is facing trial under Article 276 ("Espionage") of the
Russian Criminal Code. It is illegal under international law for Russia to
enforce its own laws on occupied Ukrainian territory, as Russia is required
to leave Ukrainian law in force (see below).
If convicted and sentenced to a jail term, Fr Kostiantyn is likely to be
transferred to a prison in Russia, despite this breaking the Geneva
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of
War (see below).
Zaporizhzhia Regional Court did not answer Forum 18's questions as to which
Judge will be presiding over the trial and whether Fr Kostiantyn will be
present in court or will join the hearing by videolink from the
Investigation Prison in Simferopol (see below).
The occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Region Prosecutor's Office in Melitopol
would not say by phone who would be leading the prosecution case against Fr
Kostiantyn in court. Nor has it responded to written questions (see below).
Russian occupation forces have a record of fabricating false charges
against those they dislike.
Artyom Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious Organisations
Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political
Communications and Information Policy Department, claimed to Forum 18 in
October 2023 that Fr Kostiantyn had not wanted the Berdyansk Diocese of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to move to be an integral part of the
Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church took over the Diocese
in May 2023 (see below).
A Protestant in her early fifties is also facing criminal trial at the
Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in occupied Ukraine. The
Russian occupation forces arrested her in early 2024. She is being
prosecuted for remarks she allegedly made at a prayer meeting in a home in
the occupied city of Melitopol in July 2023 (see below).
The Russian occupying forces disappeared two Greek Catholic priests - Fr
Ivan Levytsky and Fr Bohdan Heleta – in Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhia Region
in November 2022. Both priests now in 2024 appear to be facing criminal
trial, under false charges related to weapons, explosives, and allegedly
"extremist" texts the Russian occupation forces claim to have found in
Berdyansk's Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin (see below).
Russia's Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova claimed on 23 May that Russia had
proposed to the Ukrainian side to exchange two Catholic priests for two
Orthodox priests. "But Ukraine, for absolutely unknown reasons, did not
agree to such an exchange," she claimed. She did not name the priests, but
Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan are the only two Catholic priests known to be in
Russian detention (see below).
"I recently visited the Catholic priests in their place of detention and
made sure that the conditions corresponded to international standards,"
Moskalkova claimed. "On their part, only one request was made, to see their
family and friends as quickly as possible" (see below).
Moskalkova did not say when and where the alleged meeting took place.
However, she visited Russia's Rostov Region on 2 May. The following day she
was in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Donetsk Region. There she visited the
town of Horlivka (Gorlovka in Russian), together with the Russian-appointed
Human Rights Ombudsperson for Donetsk, Darya Morozova. It is possible that
Moskalkova and Morozova met Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan in Russia's Kalinin
Labour Camp in Horlivka (see below).
Neither Moskalkova nor Morozova replied to Forum 18's questions about the
reported meeting with Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan (see below).
The Donetsk Exarchate of the Greek Catholic Church – to which Fr Ivan and
Fr Bohdan belong – told Forum 18 it has received no news of the two
priests. It said it had no confirmation that Moskalkova had visited Fr Ivan
and Fr Bohdan. However, the fact that Moskalkova talked about them appears
to show that they are alive and is a "good sign", chancellor Fr Andriy
Buchvak told Forum 18 (see below).
Russia's Kalinin Labour Camp in Horlivka did not respond to Forum 18's
questions as to – if it is holding the two priests – whether they can
exercise freedom of religion or belief; whether they have access to
lawyers; and what is preventing them being returned to their families (see
below).
Russian occupiers' pressure on religious communities
Russian occupation authorities have repeatedly tried to pressure priests
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church linked to the
Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) to join new dioceses the Moscow Patriarchate
Russian Orthodox Church has unilaterally established on occupied Ukrainian
territory. Both OCU and UOC clergy have been disappeared after they have
refused.
Unknown men from the Russian occupation forces seized 59-year-old Fr Stepan
Podolchak of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) on 13 February in the
Ukrainian village of Kalanchak in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson
Region. They took him away barefoot with a bag over his head, insisting he
needed to come for questioning. His bruised body – possibly with a
bullet-wound to the head - was found on the street in the village on 15
February. No one appears to have been arrested or punished for Fr Stepan's
torture and murder (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russian occupation forces in Zaporizhzhia Region not only banned four
religious communities (https://www.forum18.org/archi
– including the Greek Catholic Church - in the occupied parts of the
Region in December 2022, they also drove out the five Greek Catholic
priests who were serving in the 10 or so parishes in and around Melitopol.
Occupation officials have also pressured and tortured Muslim clergy
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
communities if they refuse to join Russian-controlled Islamic structures.
Occupation authorities have closed and seized many places of worship
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
like.
Russian occupiers disappeared Fr Kostiantyn in May 2023
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Fr Kostiantyn Vyacheslavovich
Maksimov (born 16 March 1983) served as priest of the UOC's Church of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Tokmak in Ukraine's
Zaporizhzhia Region. He chose to remain there when Russian forces occupied
the area in early 2022.
Russian occupation forces detained Fr Kostiantyn in the southern town of
Chongar (https://www.forum18.org/archi
attempted to cross the administrative boundary with the occupied Ukrainian
territory of Crimea in May 2023.
Artyom Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious Organisations
Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political
Communications and Information Policy Department, claimed to Forum 18 in
October 2023 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Kostiantyn had not wanted the Berdyansk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (UOC) to move to be an integral part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Church took over the Diocese in May 2023.
Sharlay did not answer his phone on 3 or 4 June 2024.
Fr Kostiantyn's whereabouts have been uncertain since occupation forces
seized him. Yelena Shapovalova, the head of the Bar Association in the
Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Region, told Forum 18 from Melitopol
on 8 April (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Kostiantyn had been held at the temporary holding centre in Melitopol while
the pre-trial investigation was underway. She declined to say where he was
after that. She did not respond to further questions or calls in late May
and early June.
Forum 18 has learnt that after being initially held in Melitopol, Fr
Kostiantyn was transferred to a Russian detention centre in occupied
Donetsk Region. In or before February 2024, the Russian occupiers
transferred him to Investigation Prison No. 2 in the Crimean capital
Simferopol. He remains there.
Fr Kostiantyn's mother Svetlana Maksimova has been searching for her son
since he was detained, trying to seek answers from the Russian and the
Ukrainian authorities. She worries about his physical wellbeing. "He was in
his summer clothes when they took him in May 2023," she told Forum 18. "He
has been allowed no parcels while in prison."
The Russian occupation authorities opened the second Investigation Prison
in Simferopol in October 2022. Forum 18 was unable to reach Investigation
Prison No. 2 by phone in late May or early June.
Fr Kostiantyn's address in Investigation Prison:
295051 Respublika Krym
g. Simferopol
per. Elevatorny 4
FKU Sledstvenny izolyator No. 2 UFSIN Rossii po Respublike Krym i g.
Sevastopolyu
Criminal case against Fr Kostiantyn
The Russian occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Region Prosecutor's Office
opened a criminal case
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
in February 2024. It claimed in a 29 March 2024 announcement that in Tokmak
between April 2022 and February 2023, Fr Kostiantyn "using an Internet
messenger, transmitted to an employee of the Ukrainian security service
information with the coordinates of the deployment of Russian air defence
technical equipment located in the city and district".
The Prosecutor's Office announcement gave no evidence for its claims and
made no reference to Fr Kostiantyn's status as a priest.
"The accomplice of the Ukrainian special services was caught transferring
confidential data to his overseers in Kyiv," local pro-Russian politician
Vladimir Rogov claimed on his Telegram channel on 31 March 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
leak threatened the security of Russia and all residents of the
Zaporizhzhia Region."
Russian occupation forces have a record of fabricating false charges
against those they dislike.
Prosecutors prepared a case against Fr Kostiantyn under Article 276
("Espionage") of the Russian Criminal Code. They then handed the case to
Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in the occupied city of Melitopol, the Russian
Prosecutor's Office announced on 29 March
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
It is illegal under international law for Russia to enforce its own laws on
occupied Ukrainian territory, as Russia is required to leave Ukrainian law
in force
(https://ihl-databases.icrc.or
The Russian-occupied or partially-occupied regions of Ukraine – including
Zaporizhzhia where Fr Kostiantyn is facing prosecution - which Russia
illegally claimed to have annexed in 2022
(https://news.un.org/en/story/
punishments under Russia's Criminal and Administrative Codes in late 2022
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russia controls.
The official who answered the phone on 4 April at the occupation forces'
Zaporizhzhia Region Prosecutor's Office – who did not give his name –
claimed not to have information in Fr Kostiantyn's case
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
The duty official at the Russian Investigative Committee for the occupied
part of Zaporizhzhia Region, who did not give his name, refused to say on 8
April (https://www.forum18.org/archi
investigators had prepared the criminal case against Fr Kostiantyn.
No exchange
Fr Kostiantyn's mother Svetlana Maksimova had hoped her son would be
released as part of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.
"We lodged documents for Kostiantyn to be included in a prisoner exchange,"
she told Forum 18 from Ukrainian government-held territory. "But the
Ukrainian government considers him a 'lost person' because it has not been
officially informed where he is." This means that Ukraine would not include
him in a prisoner list to submit to the Russians, Maksimova explained.
The Ukrainian and Russian governments have held multiple prisoner exchanges
since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, negotiations are often delicate and apparent agreements often
break down at the last minute.
Trial to begin on 6 June
The criminal trial of Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov on charges of "espionage" is
due to begin on 6 June, Fr Kostiantyn's mother Svetlana Maksimova told
Forum 18. It appears that the trial will take place at the
Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in the occupied city of
Melitopol. He has a lawyer named by the Russians. The family has also
engaged a Kyiv-based lawyer Yuliya Bogdan.
Svetlana Maksimova would like to be able to attend the trial. But the long
journey through third countries, with no guarantee she would be allowed in,
make such a journey unrealistic, she told Forum 18.
No one at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court answered the
phone on 3 or 4 June. Forum 18 wrote to the court the same day asking who
would be the judge in the case. Forum 18 also asked whether Fr Kostiantyn
would be present in the courtroom or whether he would participate by
videolink from Investigation Prison No. 2 in Simferopol. Forum 18 had
received no response by the afternoon locally of 4 June.
Vladimir Polukhin, the Russian-installed head of the court, did not respond
to Forum 18's message about the trial of Fr Kostiantyn sent to his personal
email address on 8 April
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Two Judges at the court, Nikita Vdovin and Roman Doroshenko, told Forum 18
separately on 8 May (https://www.forum18.org/archi
that they were not the judge in Fr Kostiantyn's case. Asked the same day if
he was the Judge in the case, Yevgeny Zadkov responded: "Get lost."
Forum 18 asked the duty officer at the occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia
Region Prosecutor's Office in Melitopol on 3 June who would be leading the
prosecution case against Fr Kostiantyn in court. He said he could not
answer any questions by phone, but that they could be sent in writing. He
added that he had never met Fr Kostiantyn. Forum 18 asked in writing the
same day who would be leading the prosecution case. Forum 18 had received
no response by the afternoon locally of 4 June.
If convicted and sentenced to a jail term, Fr Kostiantyn is likely to be
illegally transferred to a prison in Russia.
The Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War
(https://www.ohchr.org/en/inst
covers the rights of civilians in territories occupied by another state
(described as "protected persons"). Article 76 includes the provision:
"Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied
country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein."
Protestant facing trial for remarks at prayer meeting?
A Protestant in her early fifties has been under arrest by Russian
occupation forces since early 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
facing criminal trial at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional
Court. She is being prosecuted for remarks she allegedly made at a prayer
meeting in a home in the occupied city of Melitopol in July 2023.
With information from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the
occupation forces' Investigative Committee launched a criminal case
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
under Russian Criminal Code Article 207.3
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
This punishes "Public dissemination, under the guise of credible
statements, of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation" when conducted "for reasons of political,
ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons
of hatred or enmity against any social group". Punishments range from a
large fine to up to 10 years' imprisonment.
The occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Region Investigative Committee refused
to say whether the FSB had secretly recorded the religious meeting at which
the woman is alleged to have made her remarks. An official told Forum 18 on
8 May from Melitopol (https://www.forum18.org/archi
that the case had been handed to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia
Regional Court and that all questions should be addressed to the Court.
No one at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court answered the
phone whenever Forum 18 called on 3 or 4 June.
Disappeared Greek Catholic priests in Horlivka camp?
The Russian occupying forces disappeared two Greek Catholic priests - Fr
Ivan Levytsky and Fr Bohdan Heleta – in Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhia Region
in November 2022 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Both priests now in 2024 appear to be facing criminal trial
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
related to weapons, explosives, and allegedly "extremist" texts the Russian
occupation forces claim to have found in Berdyansk's Church of the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russia's Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova claimed on Telegram on 23 May that
Russia had proposed to the Ukrainian side to exchange two Catholic priests
for two Orthodox priests. "But Ukraine, for absolutely unknown reasons, did
not agree to such an exchange," she claimed. She did not name the priests,
but the 47-year-old Fr Ivan and 59-year-old Fr Bohdan are the only two
Catholic priests known to be in Russian detention.
"I recently visited the Catholic priests in their place of detention and
made sure that the conditions corresponded to international standards,"
Moskalkova claimed. "On their part, only one request was made, to see their
family and friends as quickly as possible."
Moskalkova did not say when and where the alleged meeting took place.
However, she visited Russia's Rostov Region on 2 May. The following day she
was in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Donetsk Region. There she visited the
town of Horlivka (Gorlovka in Russian), together with the Russian-appointed
Human Rights Ombudsperson for Donetsk, Darya Morozova.
Forum 18 wrote to the offices of Moskalkova in Moscow and Morozova in
Donetsk on 30 May asking whether they had met Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan in
Russia's Kalinin Labour Camp in Horlivka or somewhere else, and what the
two priests had said about conditions they face. Forum 18 had received no
response from either by the afternoon locally of 4 June.
The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) decided
to strip Russia's Ombudsperson's Office of accreditation in October 2023
over a range of concerns. Among these concerns was its support of Russia's
invasion of Ukraine. GANHRI's Sub-Committee on Accreditation added that
Russia's Ombudsperson's Office "is not acting independently when
considering human rights violations committed by Russian authorities, and
is supporting positions and actions of the Russian authorities against
international norms".
The Donetsk Exarchate of the Greek Catholic Church – to which Fr Ivan and
Fr Bohdan belong – told Forum 18 on 3 June that it has received no news
of the two priests. It said it had no confirmation that Moskalkova had
visited Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan.
However, the fact that Moskalkova talked about them appears to show that
they are alive 18 months after they were seized and is a "good sign", Fr
Andriy Buchvak, chancellor of the Donetsk Exarchate, told Forum 18.
It is possible that Moskalkova and Morozova met Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan in
Russia's Kalinin Labour Camp in Horlivka. The Russians have held many
prisoners of war and other detainees in the camp since their renewed
invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Forum 18 was unable to reach Russia's Kalinin Labour Camp in Horlivka by
phone in late May or early June. On 3 June, Forum 18 wrote to Andrei
Felendash, its acting head, asking (if Fr Ivan and Fr Bohdan are indeed
there):
- what conditions are like in the camp;
- whether they can exercise freedom of religion or belief, including by
having religious literature and praying;
- whether they have access to lawyers;
- and what is preventing them being returned to their families.
Forum 18 had received no response by the afternoon locally of 4 June.
The address of the Russian Labour Camp in Horlivka, where Fr Ivan and Fr
Bohdan might be being held:
Donetskaya narodnaya respublika
g. Gorlovka
ul. Nemirovicha-Danchenko
Kalininskaya ispravitelnaya koloniya
(END)
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