BELARUS (ANS) -- New Life Pentecostal Church in Belarus' capital Minsk has had a massive fine imposed on it for alleged “environmental damage.”

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.

Writing for Forum 18 News service, Felix Corley said added to an earlier fine, the two fines and "compensation" total 265,750,000 Belarusian Roubles (or 89,300 US Dollars).

Sergei Lukanin, the church's lawyer, told Forum 18 that the church will pay neither fine, arguing that if there is any pollution at the site it dates from the time before the church owned the property. He insisted that the church has kept the building and site in good order.

Forum 18's said its own observations during visits to the church supported Lukanin's contention.

Meanwhile, two small Pentecostal churches in villages near Minsk have been fined for using the properties they own for worship services.

Forum 18 said officials claim the properties are registered for domestic use, and that use of the land they stand on for worship in the properties is illegal. A member of the Pentecostal Union handling these two cases says that the small congregations – each has 20 to 30 members – will struggle to pay these fines.

“Raising such sums is difficult for such a small community,” the Union member told Forum 18. “The fear is that officials could do this again – the mechanism is there.”

Forum 18 said that Protestant communities in particular have long faced great difficulties in rebuilding properties they own for worship, and found it is nearly impossible to get property officially re-designated so that it can be legally used for worship buildings. This problem mainly affects Protestant communities, as unlike the other major communities in the country - Orthodox and Catholic - they are much less likely to own their own worship buildings.

Communities who do not own their own property have long found that the state places huge obstacles in the way of them renting facilities in which to meet.

Elsewhere, the pastor of a Belarusian village Pentecostal church has been fined three times in one day for sharing his faith outdoors in a nearby village as he did not receive “appropriate permission.”

In addition, Forum 18 added, courts have refused to acquit one person for the “crime” of conscientious objection to compulsory military service, but two others have been acquitted. Fears have been expressed that at least one of the three may be prosecuted again for the same “crime.” A coalition of civil society groups has published proposals for an Alternative Service Law.

Massive "environmental damage" fine imposed

Forum 18 said officials have long sought to oust the New Life church from its building – a former cowshed which the church bought in 2002 and converted for worship – on the edge of Minsk.

The latest case against New Life began at Minsk City Economic Court on May 12, seeking compensation for alleged oil pollution on church land. The case was suspended as an earlier pollution case was considered separately, but resumed later.

At the final hearing on July 29, Forum 18 reported, Judge Oleg Klyuko found the church guilty and fined it 249,000,000 Belarusian Roubles to pay for what the state claims would be the cost of cleaning the alleged damage.

In addition, 8,000,000 Roubles were imposed in costs, in “compensation” for the state's costs in bringing the case – bringing the total to 257,000,000 Roubles (or 86,400 US Dollars).

Forum 18 said New Life argues that officials are using environmental claims as part of their long-running campaign against the church. The head of Minsk's City Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Committee has claimed that grass being grown for a children's playground at the church might also cause environmental damage.

Forum 18 said he was disinterested when the news service raised concerns about accumulated garbage - including rotting vehicles and old washing machines - dumped within 500 meters of the church.

The congregation has adopted a policy of civil disobedience, refusing to allow state officials into the building.

“No one ordered us to do this”

However, Aleksandr Borovikov, head of Minsk City Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Committee which brought the case, defended the massive fine.

“The court established that the church is guilty – they took the decision,” he told Forum 18. He dismissed any comparison between the size of the penalty in New Life compared to those in Brest Region.

Forum 18 said Borovikov once again vigorously rejected the church's claims that environmental measures are deliberately being used to target the church.

He said, “No one ordered us to do this – we are an independent agency.”

Church lawyer Lukanin told Forum 18 that the church will appeal against the fine to the Appeals Section of the Economic Court. The Church has 15 days to do so from receipt of the verdict in writing, though it must pay 4,000,000 Belarusian Roubles (or 1,300 US Dollars) in costs to file the appeal.

Lukanin added that officials are now alleging that the track leading from the nearest road to the church car park was built illegally. He insisted that the track was already there when the church building was a cowshed long before New Life bought it.

Borovikov of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Committee told Forum 18 that the track is still being investigated and no conclusion has yet been reached.

He said, “The report from the experts has not yet reached my desk for signature.”

Earlier “environmental damage” fine

In the earlier case, on July 12 New Life received in writing the decision of the Supreme Court upholding a fine handed down on the church for “environmental damage” to parking lot, the church told Forum 18. The decision was signed by one of the Court's deputy chairs, Valeri Kalinkovich.

Minsk District Court had fined the church 8,750,000 Belarusian Roubles (or 2,900 US Dollars) on Feb. 26 for damage environmental officers claimed had been caused to the land in the car park.

Forum 18 said an appeal against the fine was rejected on March 26 by Minsk City Court, after which the Church took its case to the Supreme Court.

The two fines and "compensation" total 265,750,000 Belarusian Roubles (or 89,300 US Dollars).

Church lawyer Lukanin contrasted the fines imposed on New Life with the situation in Brest Region.

Forum 18 reported that according to a July 24 Belapan article citing the Regional Prosecutor Sergei Khmaruk, penalties totaling 88,000,000 Belarusian Roubles – just under one third of the total imposed on New Life - were imposed in 281 separate cases involving environmental damage in the entire Brest Region in the first six months of 2010.

Churches can't use own property for worship

On June 8, Forum 18 reported, Soligorsk District Court in Minsk Region found two Pentecostal churches guilty of using their plots of land not for their true purpose. The church in the village of Gavrilchitsy and the church in the village of Krasnaya Sloboda each use a private home they have bought and remodeled for worship. In each case, the registered congregations have certificates from the Village Executive Committees certifying their “permanent use” of the properties.

Forum 18 said each congregation was fined 700,000 Belarusian Roubles (or 235 US Dollars) under Article 15.10, Part 3 of the Administrative Violations Code (“violation of the procedure for using a land plot.”) The fine was the minimum laid down for legal entities found guilty of this offence.

Forum 18 said while both churches appealed against the decisions, Judge Lyudmila Astreiko of Minsk Regional Court upheld the fines in separate hearings on July 6, according to the almost identical verdicts seen by the news service. The court ruled that both buildings were private homes, and that the land on which they stood could only serve to support domestic use of the home.

"They can't use them as places of worship"

Leonila Belitskaya, head of Soligorsk District Land Use Geodesic Department, who testified against both churches in the District Court, told Forum 18 that “these are recorded as private houses – they can't use them as places of worship.”

She said they had to change their official use before they could use them as churches. She defended the fines, insisting that they were handed down in accordance with the law, not to punish people for religious practice.

Belitskaya added that the Pentecostals can gather as friends in the houses and pray. Asked how that differed from what they have been doing, she responded: "They've been using them as places of worship when they are not."

“Legal vacuum”

The deputy head of the Pentecostal Union, Sergei Tsvor, expressed concern over the rulings.

Forum 18 said he pointed out that for many small congregations, buying anything other than a private home to use as a church is beyond their means. He said that congregations abide by the law and all sanitary and fire requirements.

Forum 18 said he also complained of a “legal vacuum” which made practically impossible to transfer such properties from domestic use to use as places of worship.

“Earlier the stress was on the alleged misuse of the building,” he said, “while now it is on the use of the land that they stand on.”

Tsvor said the Union is preparing a set of documents to present to the Supreme Court in a bid to clarify and resolve the issue.

Forum 18 said it has long been nearly impossible to get property officially re-designated so that it can be legally used for worship buildings.

For more background information see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1311

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Now You See Me." Additional details on some of Reynalds' previous books are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145.