02.11.2015

The court hearing for the latest politically motivated and rigged state persecution against Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid, two Bishops, priests, monastics and members of the canonical Church, the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric, was scheduled for November 2, 2015.

The court hearing was scheduled after the Supreme Court, with serious remarks in favor of the unjustly accused, abolished the convicting verdict of the Court of First Instance, but at the same time, returned the process for a retrial under the same judge that reached the convicting verdict.

Again, for the third time, the court hearing was postponed!

The Public Prosecutor had not notified the court in advance that she will not show on the court hearing, and according to the court report, also did not have a timely filed confirmation that due to health reasons she will not come to the trial. The judge called her on the telephone and she told him then, that she was not going to appear on the trial. If the court had been timely notified for the absence of the prosecutor, the unjustly accused would not have been exposed to travel costs and waste of time, to come from different towns of the homeland.

The judicial system in our homeland is exposed to serious critique by the international community and its thorough reform is one of the main conditions for progressing towards the advanced democratic societies!

The next hearing is scheduled for the middle of December! Having in mind that initially the hearing was scheduled for July this year, the court is obviously not capable of starting the trial in the passed half a year!

The Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in May this year responded positively to the request of the schismatic MOC for starting of the dialogue for solving the problem of this unrecognized Church, but with clear and unambiguous notation: the dialog will not end, until this rigged court process ends with an acquittal verdict by the court!