“This sentence aims to intimidate and silence hundreds of other priests before the presidential election in January,” according to human rights activist Pavel Sapelka.
A Belarusian Catholic priest has been convicted of high treason for criticizing the government and sentenced to 11 years in prison. It is the first case of indictment of a Catholic clergy on political grounds since Belarus became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The conviction of priest Henrykh Akalatovich comes as Belarusian authorities have intensified their crackdown on dissent ahead of the January 26 presidential election, which is almost certain to give authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a seventh victory. mandate.
The Viasna Human Rights Center said Henrykh Akalatovich, 64, rejects accusations of treason. The group included him on the list of 1,265 political prisoners in the country.
“For the first time since the fall of the communist regime, a Catholic priest from Belarus has been convicted on criminal charges against political prisoners”said Pavel Sapelka, representative of Viasna. “This harsh sentence aims to intimidate and silence hundreds of other priests in the run-up to the January presidential election.”
Henrykh Akalatovich, who has been in custody since November 2023, was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery just before his arrest. The priest from the town of Valozhyn in western Belarus, who criticized the government in his sermons, was held incommunicado and prison officials refused to send him warm clothes and food.
Henrykh Arkatovich is among dozens of clergy – Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant – who have been imprisoned, silenced or forced into exile for protesting the 2020 election that allowed Alexander Lukashenko to seek a sixth term . The disputed vote, which the opposition and the West say was tainted by fraud, sparked mass protests. The authorities then responded with a vast campaign of repression during which more than 65,000 people were arrested and thousands more were beaten by the police.
Catholic and Protestant clergy who supported the demonstrations and sheltered demonstrators in their churches were particularly targeted by the crackdowns. The Belarusian authorities openly seek to bring the clergy into line, repeatedly summoning them for political talks “preventatives”monitoring websites and social media, and asking security services to monitor sermons.
While Orthodox Christians make up around 80% of the population, just under 14% are Catholic and 2% are Protestant.
Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for nearly 30 years and describes himself as a “orthodox atheist”attacked dissident clergy during the 2020 protests, urging them to “do your job” and not to fuel agitation.
Alexander Lukashenko is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. It allowed Russia to use its country’s territory to send troops to Ukraine in February 2022 and deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
