The Pecherskyy district court of Kyiv has extended the term of pre-trial restraint for Metropolitan Pavlo (Petro Lebed) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) for two months, Hromadske has reported, quoting his lawyer Mykyta Chekman.
On 22 January, journalist Yan Dobronosov published a video of the Metropolitan getting into a car near the court building where a hearing on his pre-trial restraint was held. According to the journalist, he said that he was very grateful to the judges and the prosecutor.
According to the lawyer, Metropolitan Pavel's duties were extended until 23 March. Previously, he was obliged to appear in court at the first request, not to leave the village (Voronkiv, Kyiv Region), wear an electronic bracelet and refrain from communicating with witnesses and victims.
Chekman added that Metropolitan Pavlo was also allowed to visit a doctor.
The Security Service of Ukraine has completed an investigation and sent an indictment to the court against Pavlo (Petro Lebed). The Metropolitan is charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: part 2 of Article 161 (violation of the equality of citizens based on their religious beliefs, committed repeatedly by an official) and part 3 of Article 436-2 (justification, recognition of the legitimacy, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, committed repeatedly by an official).
The investigation established that the Metropolitan had repeatedly publicly denied the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state. He also referred to Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine as a "civil conflict" that has been going on since 2014.