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CATHOLIC PRIEST JAILED 11 YEARS FOR CRITICIZING GOVERNMENT
A Catholic priest in Belarus was convicted on Monday of high treason for criticising the government and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
This marks the first instance of politically motivated charges against Catholic clergy since Belarus gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Rev Akalatovich’s conviction comes amid an escalating crackdown on dissent by Belarusian authorities in the lead-up to the presidential election on January 26, which is virtually guaranteed to secure a seventh term for authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The Viasna Human Rights Centre reported that Akalatovich, aged 64, has denied the treason charges. The group has identified him as one of 1,265 political prisoners in the country.
“For the first time since the fall of the Communist regime, a Catholic priest in Belarus has been convicted on criminal charges typically levelled against political prisoners,” said Viasna’s representative, Pavel Sapelka.
“The severe sentence aims to intimidate and silence hundreds of other priests ahead of January’s presidential election.”
Akalatovich, who has been in custody since November 2023, was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery shortly before his arrest. The priest, from Valozhyn in western Belarus, has been critical of the government in his sermons and has been held incommunicado, with prison officials rejecting warm clothing and food sent to him.
He is among numerous clergy—Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant—who have been jailed, silenced, or forced into exile for opposing the 2020 election that granted Lukashenko a sixth term.
The widely disputed vote, denounced by the opposition and the West as fraudulent, sparked mass protests, which were met with a brutal crackdown resulting in over 65,000 arrests and thousands of instances of police violence.
While approximately 80% of the population identifies as Orthodox Christians, just under 14% are Catholic, and 2% are Protestant.
Lukashenko, who has held power in Belarus for nearly 30 years and describes himself as an “Orthodox atheist,” has berated dissenting clergy during the 2020 protests, urging them to focus on their duties rather than instigating unrest.
Lukashenko counts as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, permitting Russia to use Belarusian territory to deploy troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and to station some tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
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