Criminal case against Belarusian Catholic priest Lazar closed - activists
MINSK. June 6 (Interfax) - Human rights activists said that the criminal case against Belarusian Catholic priest Vladislav Lazar, who was charged with treason, has been closed.
"The co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democratic Party's organizing committee, Pavel Severinets, has learned that the criminal case against the Catholic priest Vladislav Lazar has been closed due to absence of proof," according to the website of the Vesna (Spring) human rights center which is not registered in Belarus.
Neither the law enforcement authorities, nor the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus have commented on this information. The Church said only that "the priest Lazar is serving at a church in Vileyka."
According to the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB), on December 3, 2013 Lazar, who had been charged with treason, was released from custody under the terms of travel restrictions and appropriate behavior.
Lazar was arrested by security forces and held at a KGB detention center in Minsk. The Belarusian Roman Catholic Church said at the time that he was "charged with handing over money and material values to a person accused of spying for another state."
In late July 2013 President Alexander Lukashenko announced the arrest of a Belarusian intelligence agent who had worked for foreign countries.
"Recently we arrested one of the traitors who worked in intelligence and was linked to foreign states through Catholic Church representatives," Lukashenko told journalists.
