(Forum 18) - A Serbian Orthodox Archbishop, Jovan (Vranisskovski) of Ohrid, has had an 18 month jail sentence confirmed by a Macedonian appeal court, in the latest development in a long-running government campaign against the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) in support of the rival Macedonian Orthodox Church. "It is ridiculous that they are trying to silence me, in this age of the internet and mass communication," Archbishop Jovan told Forum 18 News Service. He noted of government action against SOC believers that "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." Court officials have claimed to Forum 18 that commenting on the jail sentence is "against the law." Archbishop Jovan was in 2003 jailed for five days in solitary confinement, for baptising his sister's grandchild.
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