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A second massive and disproportionate fine was imposed on New Life Church on 29 July 2010 for alleged ‘environmental damage’ – a sum of 265,750,000 Belarusian Roubles equivalent to around £56,000. The church’s lawyer, Sergei Lukanin, said that the church won’t pay the fine on the basis that any pollution predates the church’s ownership of the site. He insists that the property has been well maintained. The church building is a renovated cow shed, bought after the authorities consistently, over a ten-year period, denied permission for the church to own or rent property for worship purposes.
Campaign for justice for New Life Church in Belarus In December 2009, we saw encouraging results of our lobbying! The European Parliament Resolution on Belarus specifically mentioned New Life Church, and urged the government of Belarus to allow the Christians attending that church to worship freely. But the church is still under pressure. The local authorities have made many attempts over the years to block the church from using their building. CSW supporters have written many times to their MPs and MEPs about this issue, and CSW has been a key voice in raising this case with the EU and other international bodies. The new European Parliament Resolution on Belarus urged the Belarusian Government to safeguard “freedom of religion for religious denominations other than the Orthodox Church, in particular to let New Life Church operate freely”. Our lobbying has had an impact! While this is encouraging, New Life Church still faces problems. Last year the local authorities in Minsk sent representatives to take soil samples on the church’s property. The samples came back clean. In December 2009 the representatives returned, this time taking samples from the gutter in the car park. Not surprisingly, the analysis of these samples showed high levels of pollution. |
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