Анатолий Парахневич. Источник фото: katolik.life
A 65-year-old Catholic priest from the Vileyka District, Anatol Parakhnevich, who has been in custody for more than a month, has suffered a heart attack. He remains in a detention centre in serious condition, writes Katolik.life, citing believers.
According to available information, the priest has been charged with “treason against the state”. Details of the charges are unknown. It is believed that he is being held in a KGB pre-trial detention centre.
Earlier, believers put forward a version of the grounds for his arrest. In their view, the priest may have been accused of helping preserve the memory of Polish citizens who died on the territory of present-day Belarus in the first half of the 20th century.
“If indeed what believers suspect was the reason for the priest’s arrest, then he has been detained unjustly — there is no crime in his actions,” the outlet writes.
It was previously reported that after the priest’s detention on March 16 in the village of Alkovichy, security forces searched his home and the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, sealed the house and seized the keys to the church. The keys were returned only a week later, and the Sunday service on March 22 was cancelled. The priest’s whereabouts remain unknown — he is believed to be held in the KGB pre-trial detention centre in Minsk. Parakhnevich has no relatives, which further complicates obtaining information about him.
Anatol Parakhnevich was born on June 16, 1960, in the Zhlobin District. He grew up an orphan, was raised in a children’s home and received his religious education in Bialystok, Poland. He was ordained as a priest in 1995. Since 2007, he has served in Alkovichy, where he founded a small museum at the church.