interview by Jovan JANJIC
All that gives an impression of political persecution, aimed at preventing the work and survival of the Ohrid Archbishopric.
NIN has managed to contact Archbishop Jovan and conduct an interview relying on written questions and answers. Among other, the interview for the first time provides an opportunity to Archbishop Jovan to reply to numerous accusations of his enemies.
NIN: Your excellence, how are you treated in prison?
ARCHBISHOP JOVAN: We are not bothered by our hard bed, for we have gotten used to such sleeping arrangements a long time ago, nor are we bothered by bad food, since we suffer from diabetes. Ultimately, it is not so terrible that there is almost no heating in jail and windows are broken, so that the temperature inside is almost the same as outside. Apparently that is a part of the re-education program in almost all prisons. It is more difficult that people in prison are crude. Add to that that one is a political prisoner, and that immediately implies a more difficult position, and harsher treatment by the warden and guards who mostly follow the old Communist procedure.
I can tell you that a man can take a lot. Under Communism, political prisoners, apart from difficult living conditions had to withstand daily beatings. Now at least that is not done. Law forbids beatings unless someone frames you. In such cases a few blows cannot be avoided.
However, if I had to decide what is most difficult in prison, I would say the inability to see the faces of my loved ones. We are not allowed to receive bishops, priests and monks, let alone faithful. We miss them truly, which makes our life in prison similar to life in hell.
Both in prison and in hell you cannot find your loved ones.
Are you perhaps being treated differently given that you are an archbishop, and given that you do not seek clemency that, one would say, has been indirectly offered by the authorities? They cannot ban personal prayers, but do you get opportunities to serve, public prayers, can you read books that you choose...?
In all reports provided to the media by the prison administration it is emphasized that we are not treated differently from other prisoners. On the other hand, it is emphasized that we do not have any preferential treatment - the administration seeks to counter any charges that we are treated "with kid gloves" - while on the other hand they deliberately avoid mentioning restrictions that have been imposed on us. For example, all the prisoners that started serving their sentences at the same time as us and under identical conditions, therefore of semi-open imprisonment, have been so far granted several leaves to visit their homes. We haven't been given a leave even though a letter had arrived from a medical institution confirming that our father had been unconscious and in coma. After that we were granted a leave to attend his funeral, but only for 24 hours. We requested to be allowed to attend a commemorative service 9 days after his death, but that request was rejected. We have already mentioned that we are not allowed visitors. Regarding religious services, or even a possibility to receive communion, that is out of question. Recently, on an important holiday, priests came to the prison gate to give us communion, but I was not even told that they had arrived. They sent them back from the prison gate without allowing us to receive communion.
In civilized nations such acts would be considered barbarous. Regarding books, they have to be screened. Someone must decide whether we are to be allowed to read a particular book. On one occasion we were brought books in Greek. As no one in the prison could understand Greek, books were sent to certain experts. However, it turned out that the books were written in the formal, archaic form of Greek, while these experts only understood contemporary Greek. Thus, it seems easier to smuggle drugs or any other banned possession to the prison than for us to get a book in Greek. Let alone in Serbian. Serbian books are strictly forbidden, because, as we were officially told, such books would help up to spread Serb propaganda, which was the justification of our sentence. Of course, as you have noticed, they cannot deny us the right to personal prayer, and I would say that here in prison I have time for inner contemplation and prayer more than ever before in my life.
You father Agir has passed away in the meantime. All those who knew him say that he suffered much due to the torture you have been exposed to. How did your detractors, those who slander, accuse and condemn you react to news of your father's death?
My father was a true believer. Even more importantly he was fully immersed in the church. In the chapel where we serve, he was always in the front row, so that now some people tell me that it makes them sad to see that he is not anymore in his spot.
Out of respect and love, no one takes his place. At his funeral, we called him a saint in our Lord. On the one hand, all of us Christians are saints in our Lord. On the other hand, he is an example that can be used by many who wish to improve their dedication to God. Everything he earned in life he left to the church. The monastery of St. John Chrisostom is his endowment and we prayed to Lord on his grave to allow us to eventually move his earthly remains to the monastery. Only God knows how he withstood the suffering of the church in the Republic of Macedonia. We stand or fall in front of God and only he knows our deepest secrets. But even a man with a heart of stone would have, we believe, said: enough gentlemen!
The church, and our father directly, have not had to endure only one or two trials. First he had to witness as we were insulted and chased from one place to another. Then almost daily break-ins by police to his apartments, in which the faithful gathered. Then the police set on fire his vacation home which he had built with his own hand and allowed to be converted into a monastery. A few months later they demolished the church he had built. In the end he had to witness the imprisonment of his innocent son. Simply, he had no time to recuperate. One blow followed another. But in the end, he was harder and more brilliant than a diamond. I cannot say if it is more valuable that he shone with his virtues, or that the suffering made him harder than a diamond.
Chance had it that, recently, judge Misko Stojkovski, who as a judge of the lower court in Bitola found you guilty of "inciting ethnic, racial, and religious hatred, divisiveness and intolerance" and sentenced you to 18 months in prison, died. Would you care to comment?
Perhaps it is not nice to talk about sins of a dead man, but for the sake of history, we are convinced that his arrogance, insolence and anti religious attitude must be mentioned.
Even if we tried to find an excuse, for example that he had to find us guilty of something as he was ordered to do so by the authorities, his decision to spite God cannot be justified. That 18 month prison sentence is not the only one. The same judge had previously found us guilty of "willfulness" and sentenced us to one year in prison, suspended. Now those two sentences have been combined and we are supposed to spend two and a half years in jail because of his verdicts.
It is not a problem that he sentenced us. Someone has to pass judgments, and if we are guilty of something, regardless of our status, we may be found guilty and sentenced. Unfortunately, in both cases Stojkovski passed judgment in issues related to faith. Therefore, he dared assume God's role. If we were to try to reconstruct the trial, it would go something like this: becoming arrogant the said judge wanted to assume God's role, devil was the chief prosecutor, and Christ was the defendant. On the one hand, because every bishop is an icon of Christ himself and on the other hand because Christ is tried every time a Christian believer is tried for his or her faith. Such a judge needs no condemnation because he has already condemned himself by attempting to assume God's role. At the main hearing we told him as much, that we do not condemn him, but that he had condemned himself and his offspring for two to three generations. We concur with the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric in their decision not to mention him in prayers for the dead. After all he persecuted the Church and decided to loose life eternal for the sake of ephemeral gain. He sacrificed life eternal for a promotion to a judge of the Court of Appeals.
Could you tell us more about the circumstances surrounding the sentence in connection with the alleged embezzlement of a 57,000 Euros donation, given that similar charges were rejected twice before?
Circumstances surrounding the 57,000 Euros donation by the current mayor of Skopje Mr. Trifun Kostovski are really very simple. Mr. Kostovski made a donation for the reconstruction of the St. Pantelejmon church in Veles, where we were a metropolitan. Given that based on the current laws the Church could not open a foreign currency account, Mr. Kostovski transferred his donation to a foreign currency account of the treasurer of the Veles Mitropolitanate, which was opened in order to receive that donation. All of that took place only a few days before the Veles Mitropolitanate entered into liturgical and canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church. Once we were expelled from the Mitropolitanate, the treasurer, given that he was one of our spiritual children, was fired by the schismatics, but he took the documentation regarding the bank account with him. Let us also mention that the donation was earmarked for specific projects for the reconstruction of the church pillars, installation of a heating system, replacement of various installations and introduction of a new sound system. Companies made offers, the donor picked some of them for specific projects and gave the control of money to us so that we could oversee their work. For three months after our expulsion, no one contacted us regarding those funds. Only after the treasurer made withdrawals from the account so that we could continue with the project of the reconstruction of the church in Veles, the public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant. On the following day, after we gave the court the full donation, 57,000 Euros and 180 Euros corresponding to three months interest, the treasurer was released from prison. Then in the first trial the prosecutor attempted to prove that we had intended to steal the money. The court acquitted us of all charges given that the purported plaintiff in the case, the Macedonian Orthodox Church hadn't charges us with anything. Actually, the MPC could not have suffered any damages as it never had the money. The donor did not give the money to the MPC, but to the treasurer directly. Thus, if anyone could have suffered damages, that would have been the donor. But, once Mr. Kostovski realized that we have returned the donation to the court, he refused to file a suit against us. The public prosecutor faced a dilemma at that juncture. Attempting to save the indictment and justify the time the treasurer spent in custody they committed unprecedented forgery. Only after the end of the trial and acquittal prosecution added to the case file a forged suit by the MPC. To great shame of the whole judiciary in the Republic of Macedonia, which is truly the most corrupt in the Balkans, the Court of Appeals in Skopje accepted the forgery and ordered a retrial. At the second trial the donor, Mr. Kostovski, testified, representatives of the companies selected to work on the reconstruction also testified and based on their testimony it was concluded that we had no intention of spending the donation on anything but what it was meant for.
The donor even testified that it was to be expected that we wanted to finish the project, given that he was moved to make the donation by his respect for us. The court acquitted us for the second time. The public prosecutor again appealed the acquittal stating that although it had been proven that we had no "direct intent" to steal the money, we "could have potentially" stolen the money. That reasoning was accepted by the Court of Appeals and the case was returned to the lower court for the third trial. With the same evidence, therefore without any new evidence provided by the prosecution, without calling any new witnesses, just like that, the same judge sentenced us to two years in prison, and sentenced the treasurer to a year and three months in prison. All of that because we "could have potentially" stolen the money.
Of course, that is all a great shame for the Macedonian judiciary, but it seems to us that politicians who direct the "independent" judiciary, blinded by malice are being very short sighted. Their main concern is to send us to prison. On the other hand, they do not care about obvious injustice and the bad reputation Macedonia is likely to earn because of this case. Unfortunately, they have no vision of the future and only think of their near term gain.
Now, there is another suit alleging embezzlement of 200,000 Euros?
We are surprised that you did not mention a larger sum, because at this point the media in Macedonia are talking about 500,000 Euros. They are free to use arbitrary numbers because the suit itself does not specify the allegedly embezzled amount. Instead we are charged with embezzling "a significant amount" of money. Thus journalists at first used the sum of 10,000 Euros, then that seemed too insignificant so they slowly raised the amount to 100,000, then 200,000 and now, as we mentioned, as much as half a million Euros.
Actually, we are accused of embezzling the whole Mitropolitanate budget for the last three years. But, even the whole budgeted amount for the last three years does not exceed 150,000 Euros. If all of that money was embezzled that would imply that the Mitropolitanate for the last three years did not pay any salaries, did not pay for electricity, heating, current expenditures etc. Apparently, someone kept putting money in the budget for the last three years, we kept stealing all of the money and no one ever complained about salaries, bills that were not paid, vehicles that were not maintained...
Expert analysis has proven that accounts were in order and that all expenditures were accounted for. If "embezzlement" were to exist someone had to give us funds or an object and we had to keep those funds or that object for our personal use or give them to someone else. But according to analysis by experts recruited by the court, such funds or objects do not exist. We do not know what sort of evidence the public prosecutor intends to offer, because the trial has just started, but after the first hearing I believe that the judge and even the Macedonian media have realized that there is no evidence of any crime in this case. When authorities in Macedonia want to put someone in prison at all cost, they usually charge them with "abuse of official position". They would gladly do the same with us, if only they could, because in that case it is easy to charge someone with not using funds for what they were intended for. But we are not an official, so that we cannot be charged with an abuse of office. We believe that it is impossible to prove embezzlement in our case. But after all, do they need any evidence to send us to prison? Did they prove anything when they found us guilty of "willfulness" and sentenced us to one year in prison? Did they prove anything when they found us guilty of "inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred, divisiveness and intolerance" and sentenced us to a year and a half in prison? What sort of proof is it that we "could have potentially" stolen the mentioned 57,000 Euros donation, because of which we were sentenced to two years in prison? This case is no different. Evidence is irrelevant. What matters is which political decision [president of Macedonia] Branko Crvenkovski has made. It is because of his orders that he have been taken into custody several times and that we finally ended up in prison. He is trying to prove to everyone that he is a "great" Macedonian pharaoh. But such pharaohs, such as Stalin and Tito, are usually not viewed favorably by history. Especially by history of religion.
It seems that by persecuting you the Macedonian authorities are trying to incapacitate the Ohrid Archbishopric. Will they succeed?
All of their actions, in the past and now, are clearly showing their intentions. They persecute bishops, priests and monks of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric, and as of recently they have started persecuting our faithful as well. They set our monasteries on fire, they destroy our churches, they forcibly enter homes of Orthodox believers... And after all of that, they are angry that some parliamentarians from the European Parliament referred to them as barbarians. I do not know if the contemporary vocabulary contains another word that would better describe utmost lack of civility, religious intolerance, attacks on church order, as well as lack of vision and lack of diplomatic tack of the Macedonian authorities. We are convinced that the word barbarian is actually insufficient to cover all decadent behaviors demonstrated by the Macedonian authorities. I am sorry that my homeland has shown itself in such a light, or darkness, in front of the whole world.
Flagrant lies of the state leadership, which claims that it is staying aside from religious matters is a clear illustration of their character. What's worse, they actually believe that someone believes their lies. In all of that, the Macedonian people is suffering greatest damages, above all because Serbs, as well as the whole civilized world, identify Macedonians with the barbarous political leadership, and secondly because hatred between the Serb and Macedonian people is being created for the sake of the current political leadership. Will they succeed in their plan to destroy the Church? Never! The church will not fail because one of its bishops is in prison. Even if they kill him, and I am sure these communists in disguise are contemplating such a possibility. New bishops will come. The church suffers the most from internal discord. This way, attacked from outside, the Church grows stronger. That has been proven innumerable times in the history of church and is being proven now. The more enemies attack the more mature church spirituality becomes, and the more our flock grows. "Blood of martyrs is a seed for new believers".
You obviously do not want clemency. What outcome do you expect? You are suffering, and obviously others suffer because of your suffering?
If clemency is granted, we shall not refuse. We cannot, or rather, we must not stay in prison if clemency comes. Even if some other form or special legal cure were applied in our case, we would not refuse, because we have always said we would use all available legal means. That has several benefits, first because our conscience would be clear as we would have tried everything, secondly because of the international community, which is monitoring this case, and finally, because of the international court in Strasbourg we have approached.
But, we have said something else, and we repeat. We shall not ask for clemency and admit guilt, admit that we were guilty of crimes we have been sentenced for. We are innocent. And never, to no one, under any duress, shall we admit guilt, because we serve the Church, because we profess Orthodox Christianity, because we seek unity with other churches. After all, no matter how much time we are forced to spend in court, no matter what charges they come up with, based on current Macedonian laws, a cumulative prison sentence cannot exceed 15 years. If thousand years in front of God are like one day, as psalms say, then what is fifteen years in prison for the sake of the Church. One thing is very important in this whole matter. In faith, nothing important, especially a cure for heresy or schism can be achieved without suffering. Simply, suffering is due.