Priest fined for consecrating a cross

Today law-enforcing agencies detained an Orthodox priest Leanid Akalovich. They acted under a decision of the police department of Staryja Darohi about a compulsory process.

The priest was taken to the court of Staryja Darohi. Judge Syarhei Epikhau sentenced him to a fine of 30 basic units (more than 1,000,050 Br). The priest was found guilty of participation in an unsanctioned meeting only for consecrating a cross raised in memory of 25 dwellers assassinated by partisans on April 15, 1943.

As said by Leanid Akalovich, he didn’t plead guilty, and refused to sign the report.

A day before the court of Staryja Darohi issued a statement about a compulsory process over L. Akalovich. The document was signed by the head of the department of law enforcement and preventive work of the police department major Alyaksandr Flotski.

As we have informed, on April 19 a memorial cross in the Drazhna village (Starya Darohi district) was set in the memory of 25 civilians slaughtered by partisans 15 April 1943. The six-pointed cross of St Euphrosyne of Polatsk was set up near the Catholic cemetery of the village, a part of which was burnt down, whose many inhabitants were killed or burnt alive in their houses by the partisans. The names of the killed people were written on a memorial board, affixed to the cross. The eyewitnesses of the tragedy were present at the ceremony. After some days according to a decision of the local administration the memorial cross was demounted and moved to the territory near a church in Zaluzha village some kilometres from Drazhna.

On June 4 Judge of Minsk region Vyachaslau Tulejka sentenced the chairman of the “Memorial” branch of the Belarusian Voluntary Society of History and Culture Monuments Protection Vyachaslau Siuchyk to 15 days of administrative arrest. In May a journalist, publisher and local historian, the author of the book about the tragedy of the village of Drazhna Viktar Khursik, was sentenced to the same punishment.