Vital Rymasheuski: “By persecuting priest Lazar the authorities want to intimidate the church”
Priest Uladzislau Lazar
has been arrested by the KGB and is in the KGB remand prison in
Minsk. He is accused of complicity in the
state treason by alleged passing money and valuables to a person, who
is charged with espionage for a foreign country.
What attitude
should be paid to the criminal prosecution of priest Lazar in
Belarus?
One of the BCD leaders, Vital Rymasheuski, states
that the case against priest Lazar is caused
by political motives:
"The regime in Belarus is
considering the Christian church as a serious threat to its
existence. It is an independent institution of
the civil society, not controlled by the ideological machine and the
repressive apparatus of the Belarusian authorities. Presenting
charges to priest Lazar is amed at
intimidating
the church and reducing
its possible political
and social activity before the election. This indicates a focused
repressive policy
against Christian communities. I shall remind
about the desire of Lukashenka to reform the church. To reform means
to repress – that's what he deals with. There is no doubt that the
charges and the verdict to priest Lazar will be the same, as far as
everybody knows who the courts depend on. It is also a defeat of the
policy of the democratic countries towards Belarus and the democratic
society in the country, as far as no reaction and defense was
provided in Haidukou's case. As a result, Haidukou was imprisoned,
now comes priest Lazar, and the number of such cases can increase by
the time of the electoral campaign of 2015.”
Mr.
Rymasheuski also called the prohibition of the nationwide march
against abortions which was to have taken place on 21 September an
“open spit” against Christian churches. The march was blessed by
the heads of the Orthodox and Catholic churches – Metropolitans
Filaret and Tadevush Kandrusevich.