Paul Keenan
Nuncio denied access to arrested cleric
Belarus – A Catholic priest arrested in May is set to face charges of treason, it has been announced. No further explanation for the case against Fr Vladislav Lazar has been offered and no answers can be gained by the country’s Apostolic Nuncio, who has been denied access to the detained priest. Via his family, Fr Lazar has declared his innocence in a case which, to date, has only been ‘explained’ by a July statement from President Aleksandr Lukashenko, which asserted that Fr Lazar was “connected with foreign states through representatives of the Catholic Church”.
