Protestant to Pass Signatures against Law On Freedom of Conscience to Constitutional Court
According to pahonia.promedia.by
The Protestant believers of Belarus have already collected 16 000 signatures against the law On freedom of conscience and religious organizations and intend to pass them to the Constitutional Court. On 17 June Protestants from all parts of Belarus will come to Minsk for a communal prayer for amendment of the legislation.
On 3 June about 5 000 believers participated in such prayer near Divine Grace church as a response to pressurization of St. John The Precursor religious community. Bear in mind that on 27 May the police detained the leader of the religious community pastor Antoni Bokun in his own apartment and charged him with unauthorized liturgy. As a result Tsentralny court of Minsk fined the priest 620 000 rubles (about 300 US dollars). However, on 3 June Mr. Bokun was detained again and sentenced to 3 days of jail on the same charges.
On 6 June the Belarusian authorities deported from Belarus the Protestant pastor Jaroslaw Lukasik, citizen of Poland. It is prohibited for him to enter Belarus for 5 years. The priest has lived in Belarus for 14 years and has a wife and three children here. Since the adoption of the law On freedom of conscience and religious organizations at the end of 2004 Protestant churches have experienced a regular pressure from the side of the law machinery: priests are detained, fined, imprisoned and deported.
