A Lithuanian citizen was detained in the village of Kukliany in the Pastavy district during a religious service attended by local Old Believers. The man is accused of conducting religious services without the appropriate authorization in Belarus. The case was highlighted by Vitsyebskaya Viasna, which drew attention to a publication by the district newspaper Pastauski Krai and reported on it.
The detainee had intended to officially register a religious community with the Pastavy District Executive Committee, but a working group of the executive committee allegedly found “signs of falsification” in the submitted documents. According to the authorities, general meetings of community members had not actually taken place, lists of founders included individuals who were unaware they had been added, and people were misled when signatures were collected, being told that they were signing in support of improvements to the church and cemetery. The authorities also claim that the community’s charter contradicted Belarusian legislation.
Human rights defenders note that Kukliany is a historic centre of Old Believer tradition in the Vitsyebsk region. Most local residents belong to the Old Orthodox Pomorian Church (priestless Old Believers) and maintain their own religious rites. The village is home to a unique historical monument — the wooden Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, built in the first half of the 19th century. In the mid-19th century, when strict restrictions on Old Believer worship were in force in the region, the Kukliany parish was one of the few places where officially permitted prayer houses continued to operate.
