Police Refuse to Instigate Criminal Proceedings on the Case of Desecration of “New Life” Church Building
Church lawyer Siarhei Lukanin told BelaPAN, chief of Maskouski police department #1 Barys Tupitsa qualified the actions of the vandals under Article 218 of the Criminal Code (deliberate destruction or damaging property). According to this article, criminal charges are initiated only if the damage is more than 40 basic units (about 600 USD). “However, we reported about desecration of the building, which should be qualified under Article 341 of the Criminal Code (desecration of buildings and damage of property). This article is used despite the size of the damage”, -- the lawyer points out. He believes, the police either are incompetent or do not want to deal with this case. “We will appeal to Maskouski prosecutor’s office against the police statement”, -- Siarhei Lukanin says.
In the night of the 1st of November activists of the Nazi-Bolshevist party (not registered in Belarus) desecrated the building of the church: they poured black paint at one of the corners of the building, wrote in red letters: No to Totalitarian Sects, and draw the symbol and abbreviation of the name of their party.
