Case against priest Lazar falls apart

A criminal case against Catholic priest Uladzislau Lazar, who was held in the KGB jail for six months, has been closed for failure to prove the charges.

As Pavel Seviarynets, a co-head of the organising committee to create the Belarusian Christian Democracy party (BCD), says the criminal case against priest Uladzislau Lazar was closed for failure to prove the charges, charter97.org learnt from the BCD press service.

“Who will answer for the brutal arrest of the priest and holding him in a detention facility and ill-treatment, while his relatives didn't know where he was? The so called criminal case fell apart. It wasn't submitted to a court. We haven't heard any public explanations and apologies from the secret services. It's clear that the case of Lazar was an attempt to scare the Church and all Christians of Belarus,” Pavel Seviarynets said.

The information about the arrest of the Catholic priest appeared a few days after Lukashenka said to journalists on July 26, 2013, that an officer of the Belarusian secret services had been detained for working for a foreign state.

Uladzislau Lazar was charged with “giving money and material values to a person, who is charged with espionage for another country”. Six months later, on December 3, 2013, he was reported to have been released from the KGB jail.

Priest Lazar is a citizen of Belarus. He studied in the seminary in Hrodna and then in Poland. He was appointed administrator with the rights of a parish priest of the Descent of the Holy Spirit parish in Barysau. He earlier served in Maryina Horka and Rudensk (Pukhavichy district, Minsk region).