after the Macedonian Supreme Court reportedly upheld a controversial 18-month prison term, despite appeals from politicians and Christian leaders around the world.
Forum 18, a human rights watchdog, said it had learned that the court ruled Friday, September 16, against freedom for Archbishop Jovan Vraniskovski, who has refused to accept the authority of the government backed Macedonian Orthodox Church.
Vraniskovski, who was previously sentenced to five days solitary confinement for baptizing his sister’s grandchild, was sentenced in July by the appeal court in his home town Bitola in July following a long legal battle.
Prosecutors argued that Vraniskovski’s activities and refusal to recognize the Macedonian Orthodox Church amounted to "inciting national, racial and religious hatred, schism and intolerance." Vraniskovski said he is the victim of a campaign by some church leaders and government officials to persecute him and his group for apparent fear of competition for the state-backed Macedonian Orthodox Church.
"The Macedonian state is doing everything to make him stay in prison as long as possible," his colleague, Bishop Marko, was quoted as saying by the Forum 18 News Service. "They are discriminating against him, that is obvious, and also against all of us in Macedonia, their own citizens," he reportedly said.
DENIED VISITS
Vraniskovski has been denied visits in prison from his church colleagues and access to religious services, church sources say. "They do not permit us to visit our shepherd – the police prevented us from visiting him on 28 August, the feast day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, when we wanted to bring him the sacraments. He is allowed no religious service in prison, and no visits are permitted except from his parents," Bishop Marko told Forum 18 News.
On Monday, September 19, he was allegedly taken from his prison in the capital Skopje to a court in the town of Veles for a third trial on charges of embezzling almost $70,000 donated for the repair of the Church of St Pantelejmon in Veles while he was still a bishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. In two previous instances, the bishop was acquitted of the charges by the same court.
At the 19 September hearing, Vraniskovski reportedly rejected the accusations, telling the court that the case was a "set-up". His lawyers requested that the hearing be adjourned until copies of the original documentation are provided by the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The judge agreed to this.
The Macedonian Helsinki Committee has reportedly condemned those who call for "intolerance and hatred" against Serbian Orthodox Christians in the country. Serbia-Montenegro has also urged Macedonia to release the Serbian Orthodox Archbishop, who began serving his sentence in July.
FOREIGN MINISTER
This summer Serbia-Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic made the demand in a recent phone conversation with Macedonia’s Chief of Diplomacy Ilinka Mitreva.
He reportedly said that Macedonia’s refusal to release the 39-year old Vraniskovski overshadowed diplomatic relations. In addition the Serbian Foreign Ministry reportedly expressed regrets for the "Macedonian authorities’ failure to refuse to be held hostage by ecclesiastical disputes."
"It is ridiculous that they are trying to silence me, in this age of the Internet and mass communication," Bishop Vraniskovski said recently. However "when they hit the shepherd, they expect the sheep to run away. But church history is paradoxical, as, the more the church is persecuted, the more followers it gets," Vraniskovski reportedly said.
Human rights activists believe jailing the bishop could undermine Macedonia’s efforts to join Western organizations such as the European Union. Despite the setback, Bishop Marko has said that "the church is functioning well." He told Forum 18 News Service that "life goes on, albeit we serve in medieval conditions – in the catacombs, people’s homes and houses. We are greatly encouraged by the prayers of many Christian leaders around the world, but we feel as though we are living in the bad times we thought were behind us." (With BosNewsLife Research).
