District Executive Committee Officials Turn In To Police Pastor Of Navalukoml Evangelical Church

The priest stated that the statements charged to him had been taken out of context.

The bank of court decisions has published a ruling on the case of administrative offence against the pastor of the Navalukoml Evangelical Church Aliaksandr Zaretski, reported Radio Svaboda.

According to the document, on February 18, during the service Zaretski said: "let's pray for those who are in prison for falsified reasons", "look at the way higher officials say one thing, but people see another in the streets", "they tell us to say that everything is fine, that everything is nice and satisfactory, and sometimes it is easier to agree", "people in Ukraine are traitors are traitors, when the Russians came, they fell to their feet", "let's pray for Ukraine, come to pray for Ukraine".

The court considered that with these statements the pastor "took part in an unauthorised mass event - picketing, without the appropriate permission of the administration of the district executive committee".

During the court hearing Aliaksandr Zaretski did not admit guilt. He did not deny the use of the statements attributed to him, but noted that they were taken out of context.

The case file states that the information note about the pastor was written to the police by officials of the Chashniki District Executive Committee.

We remind you that the pastor of Navalukoml Evangelical Church was detained for praying for Ukraine on February 22. He was subjected to administrative arrest for 15 days under Article 19.11 of the Administrative Code (Distribution of extremist materials).

Aliaksandr Zaretski was supposed to be released on March 8, but on March 6 he was re-arrested for 15 days under part 1 of article 24.23 of the CAO (Violation of the order of organisation and holding of mass events). His sermon during the service was considered as such.

In 2020, Aliaksandr Zaretski signed a collective open letter of Christians of Belarus against violence, after which he and his community were repeatedly harassed by law enforcement officers. In July 2021, the pastor was searched, and in November 2021, an administrative case was initiated because of minor inaccuracies in the registration of humanitarian cargo.

On April 20, 2023, the pastor was detained under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences for likes and comments to materials from "extremist" Internet resources. The pastor was arrested twice in a row for 15 days, spending a month behind bars.