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Belarus
Feb 26, 2004 4:38:39 GMT -5
Post by Michael on Feb 26, 2004 4:38:39 GMT -5
More Baptist pastors have been fined for holding worship services based on a religion law that outlaws systematic unregistered religious gatherings. Police have twice fined a minister the equivalent of $42 in recent months for leading home worship in the town of Lelchitsy, located in the Gomel region, the International Union of Baptist Churches (IUBC) told Forum 18 News Service. The Union also said that another of its pastors, Valeri Trifan, was questioned Feb. 3 by local officials in the town of Soligorsk, located in the Minsk region. Trifan, who has six children, has reportedly been fined the equivalent of $89 over the last two years for hosting an unregistered Baptist congregation at his home.
The average annual salary in Belarus is the equivalent of $128, Forum 18 reported. Three of the Union's pastors in Belarus were fined the equivalent of $108 dollars in 2003 for leading unregistered congregations in the Gomel and Vitebsk regions, Forum 18 reported.
Since the November 2002 adoption of a law that explicitly outlaws unregistered worship by religious communities, the estimated 29 congregations in the former Soviet republic belonging to the Moscow-based IUBC have increasingly found their pastors to be subject to fines by Belarusian authorities.
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