On 3 March 2025 a panel of the judicial chamber for criminal cases of the Dnipro Court of Appeal did not grant the appeals of four defence lawyers of Metropolitan Arseniy against the ruling of the Sloviansk City District Court of the Donetsk Region of 30 January 2025 (case No. 243/4706/24). This is stated in that court’s ruling of 27 March 2025, which lists the earlier decisions in the case. The ruling of 23 May 2025, in its own list of earlier decisions, confirms the date, the result and the number of the appeal case: the ruling of 30 January was left unchanged, case No. 11-kp/803/1141/25.
In the ruling of 27 March the decision of 30 January is described as follows: the accused, charged under part 2 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, had his custody extended by 60 days, to 30 March 2025 inclusive, without bail being set. The register anonymises the accused.
In a post on its website dated 10 March 2025 the Svyatogirsk Holy Dormition Lavra, whose superior is Metropolitan Arseniy, reported that the appeal court had finished hearing, begun on 25 February, the appeals against the ruling of 30 January that extended the Metropolitan’s custody to 30 March. According to the Lavra, the lawyers asked for custody to be replaced with a measure not involving detention, in particular bail, the surety of members of parliament, or house arrest. In the same account, besides the lawyers, the Metropolitan and the prosecutor, two members of parliament took part in the hearing and said they were ready to stand surety for him. The court, the Lavra writes, refused the lawyers and the members of parliament the Metropolitan’s release and upheld the decision of the court of first instance.
Sources: ruling of the Sloviansk City District Court of the Donetsk Region of 27 March 2025 in case No. 243/4706/24 (copy in the YouControl catalogue); the same court, ruling of 23 May 2025 (copy in the YouControl catalogue); Svyatogirsk Holy Dormition Lavra, 10 March 2025.
