Pope has stood up for priest Lazar

Granting an audience to the metropolitan Tadeush Kandrusievich, the Pope Francis, stated that he wanted to know all the details on the case of the arrested priest Uladzislau Lazar.

At the meeting with the metropolitan Kandrusievich the Pope emphasized that he wanted to personally know of all the details of the case and how it will be resolved, the official web-site of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus reports.

During the meeting with the archbishop Kandrusievich the Pope asked about priest Uladzislau Lazar’s situation. The pontiff expressed great concern over the situation as well as he did on 30 Septebmer during the audience of the apostolic nuncio in Belarus archbishop Claudio Gugerotti.

It is also mentioned that on 3 October the Pope Francis received the members of the conference of the Pope’s Council, which is taking place in Rome and which the metropolitan of Minsk and Mahilou archbishop Kandrusievich is taking part in.

We would remind that the Belarusian priest Uladzislau Lazar is accused of passing money and material values to a person, who is charged with espionage for a foreign state.

The priest is charged with violating part 1 of the article 356 of the Criminal Code (state treason). His criminal responsibility is defined by part 6 of the article 16 of the Criminal Code (complicity to a crime), which provides for an imprisonment for 7 to 15 years. He is being kept in KGB jail in Minsk.

The public learnt about the priest’s detention in several days after Aliaksandr Lukashenka had told journalists on 26 July that an agent of Belarusian special services had been detained for working for foreign states.