MINSK, Belarus — Religious communities in various parts of Belarus have faced visits, threats and warnings for holding meetings for worship that officials regard as illegal.
On one Sunday in January, officials visited three Pentecostal services in separate villages. Pastor Vasili Raptsevich — who led worship in a church-owned house in a village in Brest Region for about 10 disabled church members unable to travel to the main congregation in a nearby town — was summoned to the police station. There he was told that he had violated the law by conducting a religious service away from its legal address without permission from the Regional Executive Committee.
Police threatened him with court proceedings and threatened to strip his Pentecostal church of state registration, he said. In February, police in the capital Minsk — among them masked riot police — launched a mass raid on a cultural meeting being held in a Pentecostal pastor’s home. Thirty-four participants were taken to a police station but were released two hours later without any explanation and without any official record being drawn up. Police refused to comment.
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