In Lepiel, Baptist believers, spouses Andrei and Tatiana Fokins, were detained for singing and spreading Christian literature near the local market. “We were detained as criminals and taken to the police station,” Andrei Fokin told Forum 18.

The incident occurred on October 27th. And on October 30, the court fined Andrei Fokin 661.5 rubles for violating the law on public events as regards part 3 of article 23.34 of the Administrative Code, and his wife – 539 rubles. This is the approximate size of the average monthly salary in Lepiel.

According to Andrei Fokin, an official of the local executive committee summoned the police to them. He also noted that the police simply copied the protocols drawn up in relation to him and his family for similar actions in 2017. The believer declares that they were tried as representatives of a religious organization, although they are simply a married couple. According to the convict, the court issued a previously prepared decision.

Fokina appealed this decision to the Viciebsk Regional Court, but on November 21 Judge Svetlana Ivanova recognized the decision of the Lepiel Court as lawful.

Andrei Fokin also said that they did not pay 1035 rubles of a fine, issued by him in 2017. They have no money for new fines. In this case, from the salary of Tatiana Fokina were forcibly withheld amounts to pay last year's fine. Authorities also threaten to take a driver's license from Andrei Fokin until the fine is paid, and to prohibit property to cover fines.

Fokin said that he appealed against the actions of the bailiff to the Viciebsk Regional Court on 10 December.

However, he said that he did not intend to stop the library service. “If we are driven out of one place, we will find another and turn to all possible institutions, but we will never give up,” the believer said.

Fokin believes that a new wave of pressure may be associated with the change of the head of the Lepiel executive committee. Mikhail Kiselevich was appointed to this post in September 2018. “This man knows us well, so he decided to use his position to demonstrate his power,” Fokin said. He said that an official from the Lepiel executive committee called the police and watched the arrests.

Mikhail Kiselevich himself said that he did not know Andrei Fokin and was not responsible for fines. The head of the ideological department, Elena Borodeiko, also denies that a local official called the police. However, she insisted that no other religious community sings or performs in public places. To stop the persecution, she stated that the community to which Fokins belonged must register. Then, according to her, "they can sing without any restrictions."

The Fokine family belongs to the International Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, which rejects the need for state registration. MSC ECB also refuses to pay fines imposed for the exercise of the rights to freedom of conscience. In Lepiel, church members have been organizing a street library since the 1990s.

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Photo: Ivan Orlov, http://baptist.spb.ru