Temple Besieged, Schukin Incarcerated :: Charter'97 :: News

On Sunday July 28 the law-enforcers of the Berestovitsky police station laid a siege to the building of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Pogranichny village. The law-enforcers trespassed the territory of the church after the temple’s priest Yan Spasouk fell unconscious during the debates with the local officials. Shortly after that they arrested the human rights defender and journalist Valery Schukin, who chanced to be in the epicenter of unfolding events.

As you all well know, the confrontation between the believers and local executive escalated after the local committee ruled to demolish the building of the first Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Belarus. An attempt at ruining the temple, undertaken on July 26, failed. The workers, ordered to bring the building down, refused to follow suit. This, in its turn, moved the local authorities to a greater fury.

Valery Schukin was traveling to the village to run a material for the “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper about the church’s defense by the believers. At the entrance to the village the car, where the journalist sat, got stopped by police. They dragged Schukin out of the vehicle, threw him on the pavement and handcuffed. Afterwards the human rights advocate was delivered to the near-by police headquarters.

Same day saw the start of the court proceedings. Schukin was charged with insubordination to legitimate police claims and got sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. The newspaper correspondent serves his term in the confinement center of the Berestovitsky district.

On the same day the law-enforcers captured Sergei Malchik, head of the Grodno branch of the “Vesna” human rights center and Vladimir Hilmanovich, deputy chairman of the Grodno affiliate of the Belarusian Association of Journalists. Both men were traveling to meet father Yan Spasouk and had no idea that the village had been cordoned off by police. They were charged with violating the passport regime and fined 50thsd (around $30) each.

Yan Spasouk’s health condition is alarming. During the course of one day they twice called for an ambulance for him. Last time, when they diagnosed him as running high blood pressure, the priest was offered hospitalization, but declined to accept the proposal due to the troubling situation with his church.

At the moment the temple remains under police siege. Father Yan Spasouk deems that on Monday they will embark on another attempt to destroy it.