A court in Belarus has sentenced the 66-year-old Catholic priest Anatoly Parakhnevich, parish priest of Alkovichy in the Vileika district in the northwest of the country, to three years in prison. The sentence, handed down in October in a closed-door trial, became known last Thursday, November 5, and also imposes a financial penalty, according to Vatican News. The priest was found guilty of “extremism” and “insulting the authorities,” and has announced that he will appeal the ruling.
The Viasna Human Rights Center, the country’s leading human rights organization, has recognized Parakhnevich as a political prisoner. According to Viasna, the priest had publicly opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, condemned Belarus’s role in it, and called for peace and repentance, in addition to participating in collecting aid for Ukrainian refugees. In one homily, he even asked his parishioners whether their own conscience could ever forgive them.
Detained in March and suffered a heart attack in prison
Parakhnevich has remained in detention since his arrest last March, carried out by masked men, presumably from the Belarusian security services. The priest suffered a heart attack during his detention. He rejects all the charges, and the authorities have not made public the detailed reasons for the conviction.
Pavel Sapelka, a Viasna lawyer, stated that the authorities aggressively pursue and threaten those who influence public opinion. For her part, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya described the sentence as “heartbreaking” and “politically motivated.” Viasna puts the current number of political prisoners in the country at 884.
Growing pressure on the clergy
The conviction adds to the pressure the Belarusian clergy has faced since 2020. Dozens of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant clergy have been imprisoned, silenced, or forced into exile, especially those who supported the protests following that year’s elections or gave refuge to demonstrators in their churches. A new law also requires all religious communities to re-register, prohibits the use of civic symbols in services, and prevents people classified as “extremists” from leading parishes.
InfoVaticana reported in November 2025 that the Lukashenko government pardoned two Catholic priests following direct negotiations with the Vatican. The sentence against Parakhnevich comes, moreover, just weeks after Leo XIV appointed Liavoncij Tumouski apostolic administrator of Byzantine-rite Catholics residing in the country.