meeting earlier this year, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison despite international calls for his release, Macedonian media reported Thursday, August 19.
Bishop Jovan, who is leader of the Ohrid Archdiocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church and whose secular name is Zoran Vraniskovski, was reportedly convicted by a local court in Bitola of "inciting ethnic and religious hatred, discord and intolerance."
His lawyer, Vasko Djordjijev, told media that his client would appeal against the conviction. Amnesty International (AI) and other human rights groups say the charges against Bishop Jovan, stemmed from a police raid in January on an apartment where he was holding a secret Sunday mass with nuns and monks.
All four monks and seven nuns were released after about 30 hours, but Bishop Jovan was re-arrested on 12 January and charged with "causing national, racial or religious hatred, discord and intolerance" under Article 319 of the Criminal Code, AI said.
Another participant, a theology student from Bulgaria, was deported and banned for two years from entering Macedonia, the religious rights groups Forum 18 said at the time. Earlier Bishop Jovan received a suspended two years jail term for conducting a baptism in July 2003, on condition he did not commit any further "offences", Forum 18 added.
NEW ROUND
This week’s court ruling is seen as a new round in the long-standing demarcation dispute between the Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox Churches in the Balkan republic, which broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991. Analysts believe the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) was set up in 1967 with the backing of the then-Communist authorities, when it unilaterally declared itself to be a separate Orthodox Church.
Previously, the MOC had enjoyed autonomous status within the Serbian Orthodox Church, which continues to claim ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Orthodox believers in Macedonia, and ownership of pre-1967 MOC property.
Amnesty International, who has declared him a Prisoner of Conscience, has said that many Macedonians see Bishop Jovan’s stance "as challenging Macedonian nationhood, and his actions provoked a storm of controversy." The MOC has called him a "traitor" and stripped him of his Bishop’s title. But Bishop Jovan has refused to give up his title and has increased ties with the Serbian Orthodox Church.
