GRODNO, BELARUS (ANS) — A Belarusian Christian has been fined the equivalent of nine months minimum wage salary for attempting to organize an informal Bible study and discussion group.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that on June 9 2008, the Grodno Regional Court declared Valentin Borovik guilty of violating Article 14 of the Belarusian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religion (LFCR) and Article 9.9 of the Administrative Violations Code and fined him 315,000 rubles (approximately £75 or about $150.

In its report CSW says that a somewhat convoluted legal strategy was used to prosecute Boravik. He was originally accused of violating Article 14 of the LFCR, which stipulates that in order to establish a new religious organization there must be a minimum of twenty members over the age of eighteen. He was then fined under Article 9.9 for holding a religious meeting with less than twenty members.

CSW says this conviction under Article 14 of the LFCR comes despite the fact that Boravik has explained that he had no intention of establishing a new religious group but was merely organizing a meeting with other Christians to read the Bible and discuss religious questions, a right which is protected under the Belarusian Constitution.

According to CSW, Borovik was originally found guilty of organizing a religious meeting without state permission by a Belarusian court on 16 March 2008 after he was “caught” organizing an informal Bible study and discussion group for a small group of Christians.

One month later on 28 April, a Mostu City Court declared Borovik guilty of violating Article 14 of the LFCR and Article 9.9 of the Administrative Violations Code. The court fined Boravik 140,000 BYR, the equivalent of four months minimum wage. On May 22, the Grodno Regional Court of the Grodno region rescinded the decision of the Mostu City Court and declared its intention to review the case. Unfortunately, as stated above, the Grodno Regional Court subsequently found Borovik guilty and more than doubled the original fine.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said, “This case exemplifies the difficulties faced by Christians in Belarus. Mr. Borovik wanted nothing more than to meet together with fellow believers to study and discuss his faith, a right that most of us in Western Europe take for granted. It is a travesty that these types of violations are still taking place in Europe. The Belarusian government must be pushed to respect its own laws and international commitments and to allow Belarusians to meet together and practice their faith freely.”

CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

Belarus is located in Eastern Europe, east of Poland.

A story by Geraldine Fagan writing for Forum 18 News Service reported that after a plain clothes policeman told a group of Baptists from outside the area to stop, Vladimir Burshtyn replied that they were not disturbing public order. He cited religious freedom guarantees in Belarus’ Constitution, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The fine is, to Forum 18′s knowledge, the highest yet imposed on Baptists for unregistered religious activity. Higher fines have been levied against members of other communities.

Forum 18 said that Olga Karchevskaya, an official who witnessed the incident, defended the state’s response and the Religion Law’s restrictions. She said, “We need to know who’s coming to us – they could be destructive or acting against people’s interests.”

After the arrival of Karchevskaya, a vice-chair of Ushachi’s District Executive Committee, Burshtyn was escorted to a local police station and charged under the Administrative Violations Code (violation of regulations for holding demonstrations or other mass events).

Forum 18 reported that a local court fined him later the same day.

Olga Plisko, a member of the nearest Baptist Council of Churches congregation to Ushachi, about 20 miles to the south-east in Lepel, told Forum 18 that the Baptists involved were not local. However, she said she knew that they were preparing to appeal against the fine.

Religious activity without state permission has often been punished with large fines. In 2006, for example, the administrator of the charismatic New Life Church in the capital Minsk was fined 3,825,000 Belarusian Roubles, (1,780 U.S. Dollars).

Forum 18 said this was the third time he had been fined for unregistered religious activity Similarly, in 2005, the Pastor of a Pentecostal church was fined 4,650,000 Belarusian Roubles (2,171 U.S. Dollars), for baptizing 70 people in a lake.

Forum 18 said the Baptist Council of Churches broke away from the Soviet government-recognized Baptist Union in 1961, in protest at regulations preventing missionary activity and religious instruction to children.

Refusing on principle to register with the authorities in post-Soviet countries, Forum 18 said that Council congregations regularly face prosecution in Belarus and other states where registration is mandatory. This is a violation of international human rights standards

Forum 18 said Karchevskaya was insistent that she had nothing against preaching the Bible, saying “We’re all believers nowadays.” In specific reference to Baptists, Forum 18 reported she said, “We have our own Baptists here, and regard them positively.”

However, Forum 18 said she insisted that the approximately 20 Baptist adults and children singing and preaching in Ushachi had violated Belarus’ 2002 Religion Law.

In addition to breaking the Law’s territorial restrictions on religious activity by traveling 400 miles from Brest Region, Forum 18 reported she said they should have obtained prior permission from Ushachi District Executive Committee.

Karchevskaya added, “If they had shown us registration documents, proving they have the legal right to hold such a mass meeting, there would have been no problem. But they didn’t.”

Karchevskaya told Forum 18 that preaching has to be within the law, “As in Norway, Germany or anywhere else.”

But the Baptists who visited Ushachi refuse to abide by Belarusian law, she said. “They say they don’t recognize any secular law, only their own.”

The 2002 Law’s territorial restrictions and requirement for permission are necessary, Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya said, because “We need to know who’s coming to us – they could be destructive or acting against people’s interests.”

“It’s common courtesy to introduce yourself and say what you want if you visit someone’s home,” Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya continued. While the Baptists preached and sang using amplification, however, on this occasion, “no one was really listening as they didn’t know who they were,” she told Forum 18.

Forum 18 said that until 2004, fines for unregistered religious activity were usually relatively low – equivalent to several days’ average wages – and for the most part encountered by congregations of the Baptist Council of Churches. They and other unregistered independent Protestant churches reported 17 of these fines in 2003 to 2004.

While the comparative figure for 2005 to 2006 was 12, Forum 18 said those fines were on several occasions significantly higher. They ranged from the equivalent of two weeks to two months average wages.

Seven fines reported by the Baptist Council of Churches in 2007 and early 2008, one of which was later annulled, ranged from approximately two weeks average wages to a month’s average wages.

For more background information, see Forum 18′s Belarus religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=888.  er, Forum 18 said she insisted that the approximately 20 Baptist adults and children singing and preaching in Ushachi had violated Belarus’ 2002 Religion Law.

In addition to breaking the Law’s territorial restrictions on religious activity by traveling 400 miles from Brest Region, Forum 18 reported she said they should have obtained prior permission from Ushachi District Executive Committee.

Karchevskaya added, “If they had shown us registration documents, proving they have the legal right to hold such a mass meeting, there would have been no problem. But they didn’t.”

Karchevskaya told Forum 18 that preaching has to be within the law, “As in Norway, Germany or anywhere else.”

But the Baptists who visited Ushachi refuse to abide by Belarusian law, she said. “They say they don’t recognize any secular law, only their own.”

The 2002 Law’s territorial restrictions and requirement for permission are necessary, Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya said, because “We need to know who’s coming to us – they could be destructive or acting against people’s interests.”

“It’s common courtesy to introduce yourself and say what you want if you visit someone’s home,” Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya continued. While the Baptists preached and sang using amplification, however, on this occasion, “no one was really listening as they didn’t know who they were,” she told Forum 18.

Forum 18 said that until 2004, fines for unregistered religious activity were usually relatively low – equivalent to several days’ average wages – and for the most part encountered by congregations of the Baptist Council of Churches. They and other unregistered independent Protestant churches reported 17 of these fines in 2003 to 2004.

While the comparative figure for 2005 to 2006 was 12, Forum 18 said those fines were on several occasions significantly higher. They ranged from the equivalent of two weeks to two months average wages.

Seven fines reported by the Baptist Council of Churches in 2007 and early 2008, one of which was later annulled, ranged from approximately two weeks average wages to a month’s average wages.

For more background information, see Forum 18′s Belarus religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=888.