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Minsk City Economic Court upholds eviction suit against New Life Church

Judge Ala Miroshnik of the Minsk City Economic Court on October 7 sustained an eviction suit against a Protestant community called New Life Church.

The suit was filed by the Maskowski district housing authority in September.

While speaking in the courtroom, New Life Church lawyer Syarhey Lukanin condemned attempts to take away the community's building as an attack on freedom of religion.

"I said that the eviction of people from their own building without proper compensation and the denial of their right to gather for worship are viewed as unlawful in any country," Mr. Lukanin told BelaPAN.

The community is to vacate its prayer house on Kavalyova Street as soon as possible and pay 350,000 rubels ($127) in compensation for the legal costs of the plaintiff, Mr. Lukanin said.

The community will use its right to appeal the ruling to the appellate panel of the Minsk City Economic Court within 15 days, he said.

New Life Church, one of the largest communities of the Association of Full Gospel Christians, obtained state registration in December 1992 and is said to have more than 1000 members. In 2002, the community bought a former cowshed together with a four-acre land plot from a kolkhoz. It converted the building into a prayer house and some 500 to 700 people gathered there each Sunday for worship.

The area was later added to the territory of Minsk and the city government decided to confiscate the plot and ordered New Life Church to sell the former cowshed to the city for 37.6 million rubels, or some $10 per square meter. Officials explained that this amount was what the building had been worth before New Life Church converted it into a prayer house without permission.

On March 5, 2009, the appellate panel of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus rejected an appeal against a ruling by a Supreme Economic Court judge that upheld the Minsk city government's decision to take away the land plot and the prayer house from New Life Church.

Later that month, the Minsk government offered the community to consider applying for a 0.4-hectare (one-acre) plot at the intersection of the Minsk Beltway and Sharanhovicha Street instead of the land plot that New Life Church had been ordered to vacate.

The city government explained that the community's current prayer house was to be demolished under a presidential edict and the general development plan for Minsk.

At a general meeting held on May 5, New Life Church members unanimously voted to reject the offer.

On August 24, the community began an open-ended prayer vigil inside the prayer house to prevent the city government from taking control of the building.

On September 9, the community sent a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee.