GOMEL, Belarus — On May 31, Belarusian riot police raided the Reformed Orthodox Transfiguration Church’s Sunday worship meeting, held in rented premises in Gomel.
On June 11 officials banned the church from renting premises, therefore banning it from meeting, church members said. Police asked, “Why do you attend this church and not a normal one?”
Officials warned congregation leader Pastor Sergei Nikolaenko — who is already facing trial on administrative code charges — that he would be investigated on possible criminal code charges.
Dmitry Chumakov, the official in charge of religious affairs at Gomel Regional Executive Committee, said, “You can watch a football match or discuss [the poet Aleksandr] Pushkin without permission, but for a religious meeting you need permission.”
In mid-May there was a similar armed police raid on the Soligorsk congregation of Council of Churches Baptists. “Eleven more armed police arrived and broke up the service, as if they were coming after bandits,” one witness said. Two congregation members were fined in early June for meeting for worship without state permission.
(Forum 18 News Service)
Share with others: