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Belarus
Priest’s appeal declined
Polish cleric expelled from country
A Polish Catholic priest, Father Zbigniew Karolak, who returned to his native country in May following an expulsion order issued by Belarusian authorities, has had his appeal against the legality of the deportation rejected.
Invited by the Pinsk diocese, Father Karolak served as parish priest of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the western Belarusian town of Brest for nine years, but was forced to leave the country after encountering increasing opposition from the Brest office of the government’s Committee for Religious Affairs and the prosecutor’s office. Father Karolak’s lawyer has lodged an appeal against the court’s ruling, continuing to maintain that the expulsion order was “unlawful.”
At the October 20 hearing of the court of the Leninsky district of Brest, Father Karolak’s lawyer, Igor Kabalik, appealed the local procurator’s expulsion order. Kabalik argued that the expulsion order had been issued illegally. Referring to the laws that govern the treatment of foreign citizens living in Belarus, he said: “Father Karolak was invited by the Pinsk diocese, and therefore the diocese should decide whether he should leave the country or not. The procurator and the police are not allowed to rule on deportations, including in the case of a priest.” However, the court rejected Kabalik’s appeal.
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