A Lithuanian citizen was detained during a religious service in the Belarusian village of Kuklyany, located two kilometers from the Lithuanian border.

Information about the incident appeared in the district state newspaper Pastauski Krai, reports Zerkalo.

An Old Believer church is located in the village of Kuklyany. However, according to the district newspaper, the Kuklyany religious community is not officially registered. This is cited as the reason why the Lithuanian citizen was detained during the service. He described himself as the spiritual mentor of the Old Believer community. However, the publication reports that “the foreign national had no right to conduct religious services in Belarus.”

It is also reported that he attempted to register the community, but “the submitted documents did not comply with the law.”

Earlier, we wrote that the Belarusian authorities refused permission for five Catholic priests and one monk of the Minsk-Mahilyow Archdiocese who hold Polish citizenship to continue their ministry.

As LF reported, three Catholic priests, all Polish citizens who had served in Belarus for many years, were forced to leave the country. The authorities refused to extend their permits for further ministry. All of them served in the Vitebsk Diocese.

LF also reported that Catholic priest Anatoliy Parakhnevich, parish priest of the parish in Olkovichi, Vileyka District, was detained.

State propaganda media had previously mentioned the priest in a negative context after he attended a reception marking Poland’s Constitution Day at the Embassy of Ukraine in Minsk, attempting to portray this as something suspicious.

It later became known that Anatoliy Parakhnevich had suffered a heart attack. The 65-year-old cleric remains in a detention center in serious condition. According to information available to Belarusian believers, Parakhnevich is accused of “treason against the state.” No details have been disclosed. It is assumed that the priest is being held in the KGB pre-trial detention center.

Earlier, a Catholic priest and two Evangelical presbyters were detained in Belarus.

As LF reported, two Polish Catholic priests who had served for many years in Brest Region were forced to leave Belarus.

LF also reported that, by decision of the KGB, the property of Catholic priest Henrikh Akalatovich is being seized and sold in Belarus. The clergyman was convicted of “treason against the state” and was released two years later following a petition from the Vatican.

As is known, the authorities in Brest Region have liquidated all parishes of the Greek Catholic Church. The court ruling refers to an alleged “threat to national interests.”

Earlier, we wrote that the number of religious communities in Belarus declined after re-registration under the new legislation. In Mahilyow Region, half of the Catholic parishes ceased operations following re-registration. In Vitebsk Region, 85 Roman Catholic communities remained compared with 94 previously. In Brest Region, 60 remained compared with 66 previously.

As LF reported, the authorities did not permit Father Uladzislau Zavальniuk, the former rector of the Catholic parish of the Red Church in Minsk, to conduct a service at the sarcophagus of the church’s founder, Edward Woynilovich.