High treason.
That’s the final conviction handed down in December for a Catholic priest in Belarus. His critique of the government in sermons earned him an 11-year sentence. Reverend Henrykh Akalatovich, who is 64, rejects the accusations.
Viasna is a human rights group in Belarus. It lists Akalatovich among 1,265 political prisoners in the country.
Pavel Sapelka is an activist for Viasna. He says the harsh sentence was meant to frighten and silence “hundreds of other priests” ahead of the most recent presidential election. President Alexander Lukashenko won his seventh term in January.
Lukashenko is Europe’s longest-serving head of state. He has been the only president of Belarus since it adopted a new constitution in 1994. He said in an interview with Reuters, “I am the last and only dictator in Europe.” He also describes himself as an “Orthodox atheist.”
Akalatovich has been in custody since 2023. He was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery just before his arrest. Like most political prisoners, he is denied access to lawyers or relatives. Prison officials turn down warm clothing and food sent to him.
Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant clergy are all targeted by the Belarus regime. Dozens have been jailed, silenced, or forced into exile. All protested the 2020 presidential election.
The opposition party and many analysts in Western nations say the 2020 vote was marred with fraud. Mass protests ensued. Lukashenko responded with a sweeping crackdown. More than 65,000 were arrested. Thousands were beaten by police.
Clergy who supported the protests and sheltered demonstrators at their churches became targets. Authorities openly seek to bring clergy into submission with the government. They summon them for “preventive” political talks. They check websites and social media. Security services monitor sermons.
Lukashenko signed into law last year a measure that requires all religious groups in Belarus to register again with authorities. They face being outlawed if their loyalty to the state is in doubt.
“People should go to churches to pray! Orthodox churches, Catholic churches—they’re not for politics,” Lukashenko said in 2020.
The president has pardoned about 207 people since the summer of 2024. Rights activists depict them as political prisoners. Most were jailed right after the 2020 protests.
Sapelka says the president is sending mixed signals to the West. He may be pardoning some. But he is “jailing twice as many political prisoners in their place.”
Belarus is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. Lukashenko allowed Russia to use his country to send troops into Ukraine. That was in February 2022. Russia also deploys some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Why? Governments that maintain power through brute force oppress all citizens and often silence or shut down churches. Pray for the people of Belarus.
Recommended Reading: For more about persecuted Christians, see Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World's Difficult Places by Tim Keesee.
