Belarus deports U.S. citizens for religious activity

Mogilev, Belarus — Volunteers from the United States who were conducting free English seminars at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Mogilev, Belarus, were deported Feb. 15. Police detained the 10 workers after officers entered the church Feb. 9 and found Bibles on the tables and participants singing religious songs, according to The Associated Press. The deportation reportedly occurred after police found the group still conducting religious activities.

Each volunteer was fined $14, according to the Forum 18 News Service. Three of the Americans left Belarus after the first warning because of a family death. The seven others were deported after the second warning.

Stefanus, the charity sponsoring the classes, was not a religious organization but held the seminars at the church because it had been offered free of charge, said director Dmitri Kontsevenko.

Regional religious affairs official Valeri Sidorenko said the Americans were deported for “conducting a teaching program without a state license,” not for religious activity.