Amsterdam: UOC journalists face life sentences for reporting the truth

Corridor in Lukyanivska Prison. Photo: rbc.ua

Robert Amsterdam, the head of the legal company "Amsterdam & Partners LLP", told Tucker Carlson, a television journalist, that Orthodox journalists are being judged for reporting the truth.

Robert Amsterdam shared with Carlson that the authorities of Ukraine spent 3.5 million dollars "to try to justify" the closure of the UOC and "deflect attention from that".

Carlson clarified whether he understood correctly that "your tax dollars are being used to defame you through sleazy PR agencies and lobbyists in Washington." 

"Oh, absolutely. And I mean it’s happening daily. You know, they are defaming me. That’s okay. But defaming the Church, defaming men of God, who are facing arrest, some journalists for the Ukrainian Church are facing life sentences for reporting the truth about the activities of the government in seizing churches and jailing priests," said Amsterdam.

He underscored that "These young men are in a cell right now where there are 20 beds for 28 men. They have to revolve their sleeping. Their crime is they’ve reported of church seizures."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that lawyers urge the U.S. government to pay attention to the encroachment of the Ukrainian authorities on religious freedom.

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