For several years, the evangelical New Life Church in Minsk is faced with strong repressions by the Belarusian authorities. The community should be dislodged from its own land. We are protesting against these attempts – please join our petition.

 

Download our petition and send it back before 31 August 2010.

Background

 

New Life Church was officially registered in 1992 and comprises about 1000 members. In 2002 the church purchased former cowshed. As it was stated in the purchase agreement, the building is being purchased with the purpose of reconstructing it as a religious building in the future. It was later pointed in the zoning decision of the lot that the construction of other buildings is possible in coordination with authorities.  But the Minsk city executive committee did't allow neither to reconstruct, nor to change the status of either the buildings nor the lot without any explanations.

 

In 2005, the city executive committee made a decision to confute the right of use of the land and purchase the building of the church. When all legal methods were exhausted, a “fasting-hunger-strike” was launched and lasted for 23 days. More than 200 people participated in it. Only after that, the pastor of the church, Slava Goncharenko, was invited to the Presidential Administration, where he was asked to stop fasting-hunger-strike and promised to solve the problem "in the context of legal framework" via the Supreme Economic Court. All former court decisions were revoked.

 

Nevertheless, in spring 2009, the Belarusian supreme court of economy decided that the evangelic New Life Church in Minsk has to vacate the estate and the community hall and has to surrender it to the city administration of Minsk. In summer 2009, bailiffs send a document to the church saying the building has to be vacated before 20 August 2009. But the members of the church expressed clearly they won’t leave their building and land. In October 2009 the pastor of New Life Church was sentenced to pay a fine of approx. 105 Euro after access to the church building was denied for state officials.

 

In February 2010 the New Life Church was charged with allegedly environmental contamination and ordered to pay a fine of approx. 100.000 USD.

 

Download our petition and send it back before 31 August 2010.

 

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