Orthodoxes-Forum.de

Today, on 12th December 2011, in attempt to enter R. Macedonia, on the border-crossing Medzitlija, on the border with Greece, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje kyr kyr Jovan was arrested and taken to the “Idrizovo” prison, near Skopje. Upon the false accusations by the schismatic organization in R. Macedonia, in 2010 Archbishop Jovan was sentenced a prison term, but because the court process was performed in his absence, he has the legal right to request a repeat of the procedure. Therefore, it is expected that in three to five days he should be released from prison, and granted a new court procedure during which he would defend himself from freedom. Only as a reminder, on 16th November 2010 Archbishop Jovan was arrested on the Bulgarian border, upon a request by the Macedonian bureau of Interpol, in regard to exactly this court sentence, but the Court in Bulgaria released him with a rationale that the court verdict in R. Macedonia was a result of the persecution on religious grounds, which the Archbishop undergoes for nine years already, and not because he was indeed guilty according to the criminal law.

From the office of the Archbishopric of Ohrid and Metropolitanate of Skopje