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Supreme Economic Court upholds decision to take away land plot, prayer house from New Life Church

A judge of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus on January 13 upheld the Minsk city government's decision to take away a land plot and the prayer house on it from a Protestant community called New Life Church.

The community will appeal the decision, its lawyer, Syarhey Lukanin, told BelaPAN. According to him, the judge promised to mail the rationale of her decision within five days. The community will then have 10 days to file an appeal.

"I don't think that this decision was made by the judge," Mr. Lukanin commented. "The judge suspended the hearing for 18 months, citing a need to consult appropriate agencies, and now we can see the results of this consultation."

In 2005, the city government decided to confiscate the land plot bought by the New Life Church in 2002 and what was then a cowshed and was later converted into a house of prayer. The authorities explained that the area where the plot is located was annexed into the city limits in 2004 and ordered the community to sell them the building for 37,581,476 rubels, or some $10 per square meter.

After the Minsk City Economic Court upheld the confiscation order.

Community members went on a hunger strike four days before the deadline for vacating the building in October 2006. They stopped the protest after the chairman of the Supreme Economic Court had contested all court rulings against the community and requested the Court’s board to consider the New Life Church case.

The Court suspended hearing the lawsuit on April 22, 2007 because of the "need to consult appropriate agencies." It later decided to resume the proceedings, explaining that "the grounds for the suspension have disappeared." The first hearing after a break of more than 18 months was held on November 19, 2008.

In September, the city authorities offered New Life Church a new land plot for the construction of a prayer house, which, however, was four times smaller.