American Citizens Deported from Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

10 US citizens, Ronald and Christine Wart, Belinda Hogan, John Williams, Bill, Angela and Carroll Guetzhal and three others, have been deported from Belarus. They have been charged with violation of rules of stay in Belarus, Radio Svaboda informs.

According to official explanations, the foreign citizens have been promoting religion and educating people illegally. All US citizens were fined fourteen US dollars. They are banned entry to Belarus for five years.

The US citizens arrived to Mahilyou on February 5. They had been teaching English for free to Mahilyou citizens as workers for a Belarusian branch of Stefanus, an international social assistance organization.

The Emmanuil church, an evangelical Baptist group in Mahilyou, had been the site of the classes, and a Belarusian partner with the Stefanus group.

The church among other aid activities ran a training programme called "English for Every One," aimed at giving a basic understanding of English to students.

On February 9 during classes representatives of citizenship and migration department detained all foreign citizens and took them to a police department. After a report was drawn up and they warned about further activities they were released.

On February 15 American citizens were told they are to leave Belarus.

Dzmitry Kantsavenka, a Stefanus spokesman, is set to go to court. To his mind, deportation of his guests is illegal. He is set that the case is a frame-up. He is a person who had invited the foreigners to Belarus. However, he hadn’t been allowed to get acquainted with materials of the case.