The European Court of Human Rights refused to introduce immediate interim measures in the interests of protecting the rights of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the occupied Crimea, since the actions of the Russian Federation “did not entail the risk of serious and irreparable harm.”
The document says that the applicants demand to stop the actions of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea aimed at expelling the OCU from the center of its Crimean diocese – the Cathedral of the Saint Volodymyr and Olha in Sevastopol, as well as the demolition of the OCU church in Yevpatoria.
“The court decided to reject the requests as falling outside the scope of Rule 39 (Provisional Measures) of the Rules of Court, as they did not entail the risk of serious and irreparable harm. The Court will grant such requests only in exceptional cases where the applicants would have faced a real risk of irreversible harm”,- the message said.
We remind that on August 29, 2019, the so-called 21st Arbitration Appeal Court in Sevastopol upheld the decision to terminate the lease agreement for the premises of the Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in Simferopol. On August 4, 2020, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to reconsider this decision. In addition, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea of the OCU Klyment received the decision of the occupiers to demolish the OCU church in Yevpatoria within five days.