A Belarusian court has sentenced Catholic priest Anatoly Parakhnevich, 66, to three years in prison for “insulting the authorities” and “extremism”, according to an Associated Press report of 5 November. He was convicted after a closed-door trial last month, rejects the charges and plans to appeal, the AP said.
Parakhnevich was a parish priest in Alkovichy, in north-western Belarus. The AP reports that he openly opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’s role in it, called for peace and repentance, and helped organise aid for Ukrainians. He has been in custody since his arrest in March and reportedly suffered a heart attack while detained.
The Viasna Human Rights Center has designated him a political prisoner. Its lawyer, Pavel Sapelka, said the authorities are going after people who shape public opinion. Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called the verdict “heartbreaking” and politically motivated. The AP report carried no comment from the Vatican or the Belarusian government.
Viasna counts 884 political prisoners in Belarus, and the AP says dozens of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant clergy have been jailed, silenced or exiled since the protests that followed the 2020 election. A new religious law requires all religious communities to re-register.
Reporting note: The trial was held in private, so the evidence presented has not been made public. The account of his activities and health comes from the AP and rights groups; no response from Belarusian officials was reported. The photograph shows a Catholic church in Minsk and is for illustration only.
Photo: Viktar Palstsiuk / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
