January 2, Pozirk. Authorities in Minsk have opened an extremism-related case against exiled priest Alaksandar Kuchta, he said in his Telegram channel.
Kuchta, a former Russian Orthodox Church priest who fled Belarus fearing persecution over his criticism of the government and Russia’s war against Ukraine, said he faces charges of recruiting and involving other in extremist activities.
Kuchta joined the Church of Constantinople—the spiritual center and symbolic headquarters of the Eastern Orthodox Church, headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I—in April 2023, after he had been banned from priesthood by the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church for leaving his parish without permission.
Kuchta and Heorhi Roj, another exiled priest, founded a Belarusian parish of the Church of Constantinople in Vilnius.
Belarusian authorities have persecuted at least 92 Christian priests since the fall of 2020, according to the Chryscianskaja Vizija advocacy group.
