A Catholic priest has been sentenced to prison in Belarus, marking the first priest to be imprisoned on political charges since the fall of the USSR in 1991.
His sentencing comes as persecution against Christian communities continues to rise in the Eastern European nation.
Fr. Henryk Okołotowicz was sentenced on December 30 to serve an 11-year prison sentence for high treason. He had been arrested last November. No other details about the charges against him have been released.
Okołotowicz is the first Catholic priest in the country to be convicted on political charges since the fall of Communism in the country.
His sentence comes as Belarusian authorities have intensified their crackdown on opposition figures before the upcoming January 26 presidential election, in which President Aleksandr Lukashenko is favored to win, amid accusations of fraud.
Okołotowicz was born in 1960 to a Polish family in Belarus. After years of seminary formation in secret, he was ordained a priest in June 1984 in Lithuania. He went on to serve as a priest in both Poland and Belarus and was known as an active evangelizer in Catholic regions of Belarus in the post-Soviet period.
Belarus, a nation of more than 9 million people bordered by Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, has been led by the authoritarian Aleksandr Lukashenko since 1994 in what is widely regarded as “Europe’s last dictatorship.”
Lukashenko is one of Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, allowing Russian troops to cross into Ukraine through Belarus during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Catholics make up around 10% of the Belarusian population, which is a majority Eastern Orthodox country. Many Catholic priests in the country are strong critics of the Lukashenko regime. Many local watchers believe that Okołotowicz’s sentence is a way to silence local clergy before the upcoming presidential election.
Tensions between Church and state rose following a disputed presidential election in 2020. After Lukashenko claimed victory with more than 80% of the vote, there were mass protests, followed by a police crackdown.
Although state media often stress the strong ties between Belarus and the Holy See, local observers have reported that since the 2020 election, surveillance against Catholic clergy has increased.
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the country’s most prominent Catholic leader, was prevented from returning to Belarus after a trip to Poland in August 2020. He was only able to return months later, following a Vatican intervention, but retired from his post of Archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev shortly afterward.
Okołotowicz was the first of a group of five priests to be arrested since November 2023.
He was imprisoned in a former KGB prison during his trial, which was held in secret. Local activists criticized that he had undergone cancer surgery shortly before his arrest and was not allowed to communicate with his family, while guards did not allow him to receive the clothing and food his family sent him.
After Okołotowicz’s arrest on November 17 last year, Fr. Viachaslau Pialinak was detained five days later following morning Mass.
Then, Fr. Andrzej Juchniewicz, O.M.I., and Fr. Pavel Lemekh, O.M.I. were detained in May 2024.
In October 2024, Fr. Yury Barauniou, a priest of the Diocese of Vitebsk, was subject to administrative arrest for alleged possession of “extremist materials.”
Catholics, who are the largest religious minority in the country, have experienced repeated difficulties with the authorities in the past three years. There are periodic reports of priests being arrested. But it is hard to determine the extent of the problem as press freedom is restricted in Belarus.
The Belarusian regime insists that it is engaged in a battle against “extremism.” But human rights activists say the concept is loosely defined and applied to any actions, public statements, or social media posts deemed critical of the authorities.
