BELARUS: A Catholic priest sentenced to 11 years in prison for “espionage” for the Vatican and Poland
For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, a Catholic priest in Belarus has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for high treason — a charge that still carries the death penalty in Belarus.
HRWF with SV TV (08.04.2025) – In Belarus, Catholic priest Henry (Gennady) Okolotovich was sentenced to a long prison term for espionage in favor of the Vatican and Warsaw. The Katolik portal writes on this issue with reference to the words that the priest managed to communicate to visitors in the Minsk detention center.
The sentence was announced back in December, the day before the New Year. The Catholic priest was then sentenced to 11 years in a Belarusian colony and to pay one million euros in compensation for “causing damage to the state”. Until today only the article on which the priest was tried was known – “treason” (Article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus). As in Russia, cases of this kind are classified in Belarus, journalists are not allowed to attend hearings, and lawyers are prohibited from commenting on the trial.
It is also important to note that Lukashenko has launched a harsh campaign against lawyers who plan to help “extremists and opponents”. According to Viasna’s investigation, since the fall of 2020, Belarusian security forces have arrested more than 20 lawyers who were engaged in the cases of “opponents of the regime” and have deprived them of their licenses. The total number of lawyers who left the profession under pressure from the regime exceeds a hundred.
As it turned out now, Fr. Okolotovich was accused of “espionage in favor of Poland and the Vatican”. He considers the sentence a “gross provocation” and an attack against the entire Catholic Church in Belarus. He separately emphasizes that the charges against him were based on indirect testimonies and that the investigation failed to provide any evidence of espionage.
The meaning of one of the documents that were translated from a foreign language (presumably Polish) was distorted during the translation, he said.
According to him, “there is not a word of truth, not a single fact denouncing him of espionage, and the whole accusation is built on lies, threats and blackmail”. The priest stressed that out of dozens of witnesses, including officials and military personnel, no one gave a “compromising testimony” against him,” the portal writes.
He also noted that priests are persecuted to silence the Catholic Church.
More reading
https://svtv.org/news/2025-04-08/bielorusskogho-katolichieskogho-sviashchiennika-prighovorili/
https://news.zerkalo.io/life/87303.html
https://ru.krymr.com/a/news-belarus-ksendz-srok-gosizmena/33258427.html
https://bgmedia.site/society/svyashhennika-genriha-okolotovicha-skoro-nachnut-sudit/
Photo : Priest Henry Okolatovich. Photo: catholic.by
