29.05.2007
BELARUS: PENTECOSTALS RAIDED AT PENTECOST


By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

After police held him overnight, a court in the capital Minsk has today
(28 May) handed down a large fine to Antoni Bokun, pastor of John the
Baptist Pentecostal Church, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The
prosecution follows a police raid on the 100-strong congregation's
Pentecost service yesterday (27 May), held at his home because the
authorities refuse to allow the church to rent a building for worship.

Pastor Bokun was detained following the Sunday service and spent the night
in custody at Minsk's Central District Police Station. On 28 May Minsk's
Central District Court fined him 20 times the minimum monthly wage, or
620,000 Belarusian roubles (1,740 Norwegian kroner, 215 Euros or 290 US
Dollars), for holding an "unsanctioned mass meeting".

Local lawyer Sergei Lukanin was present with approximately 100 other
supporters at the hearing. He told Forum 18 that Pastor Bokun told the
court he had broken the law only because it went against the law of God. He
was prosecuted under Article 23, Part 34 of the Administrative Violations
Code, which punishes violation of regulations for holding demonstrations or
other mass events with a fine of up to 30 times the minimum wage or 25
days' imprisonment.

On the morning of 28 May, a police spokesman at Minsk's Central District
Police Station confirmed Bokun's detention there to Forum 18. "So what?" he
remarked. Asked what charges Bokun faced, the spokesman replied, "for
holding an unsanctioned meeting". However, he insisted that he was unaware
what type of meeting it was: "How should I know?"

Under the 2003 Demonstrations Law, all public events require the advance
permission of the local state authorities. Under the restrictive 2002
Religion Law, religious events outside designated places of worship - even
in the home - may take place only after a corresponding decision by the
local authorities.

Lukanin, the lawyer, told Forum 18 on 27 May that he was given access to
Pastor Bokun, "but not immediately, and we had to insist." While Pastor
Bokun signed the protocol drawn up against him, he said, he explained that
John the Baptist Pentecostal Church - which holds state registration -
meets at his home without official permission only because it has been
refused state permission to rent other premises: "They had no choice".

Ten state representatives - two in police uniform and eight in plain
clothes - carried out the raid, Jaroslaw Lukasik, who assists at John the
Baptist Pentecostal Church, told Forum 18 after himself being detained for
several hours at Central District Police Station on 27 May. Two young men
in plain clothes - whom he presumed to be KGB secret police - were present
from the start of the 11am service, he said. Neither they nor the eight who
arrived during guest preacher Bishop Sergei Tsvor's sermon identified
themselves, he added. The state representatives began filming while Bishop
Tsvor was preaching and called those present out into a neighbouring yard
after worship had finished, he said. A truck of OMON riot police was also
headed for the house church, added Lukasik, but by the time it arrived both
he and Pastor Bokun were already being escorted to the police station.

Lukasik believes the purpose of the raid was to prosecute him further
after his public refutation of a 8 May order under which he must return to
his native Poland by 8 June (see F18News 17 May 2007
).

While he witnessed and prayed at the Pentecost service, Lukasik
maintained, there was "no basis" for the protocol police drew up against
him since Bishop Tsvor had preached in his place. "So I refused to sign
it." Nevertheless he was accused of conducting unauthorised religious
activity as a foreign citizen and hence violating laws on the presence of
foreign citizens in Belarus. Lukasik is due to go before an administrative
commission this coming Wednesday (30 May). Once two Polish diplomats were
given access to him towards the end of his Sunday afternoon detention, he
told Forum 18, police officers explained that he faces a fine of up to 20
times the minimum wage or immediate deportation.

The authorities in Belarus maintain tight controls on the religious
activity of foreign citizens. A Polish Catholic priest narrowly escaped
prosecution after he celebrated Mass without state permission while passing
through Minsk last September (see F18News 3 October 2006
). Foreign religious
workers invited by local religious communities of various confessions are
increasingly being barred (see F18News 18 October 2006
).

This is the first time John the Baptist Pentecostal Church has been
raided. In late 2006 a local policeman and a state representative in plain
clothes inspected the empty premises - the basement of a free-standing
house near the edge of Minsk - but there have been no repercussions until
now.

Tsvor, the Pentecostal Union's bishop for Minsk and Minsk Region, was
similarly threatened with charges for unsanctioned worship in March 2006.
However, he was spared punishment following the expiry of the legal
deadline for his prosecution (see F18News 13 March 2006
). (END)

For more background information see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom
survey at .

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
.