Source:         www.forum18.org

Date:            May 8, 2008

 
 
A Pentecostal church in the internationally unrecognised entity of
Trandniester is still banned from worshipping in its church building, Forum
18 News Service has learnt. Pastor Yuri Semenyuk told Forum 18 that he is
also now facing criminal prosecution for alleged forgery of documents,
although he has not been given a copy of the charges. Prosecutor Vasily
Tarnukov categorically denied this to Forum 18, but an independent legal
source confirmed that state Commissioner for Religious Affairs Pyotr
Zalozhkov had brought the charges. Jehovah's Witnesses in the entity are
also facing sustained harassment and refusals to register some of their
congregations. However, after the entity's President Igor Smirnov received
"many appeals" from local unregistered Baptists about harassment and fines
against them, a presidential official told church leaders that they could
meet and that officials "didn't have the power to ban them." The entity's
parliament is considering drafts of a restrictive Religion Law and a
National Security Concept, which are likely to hit hardest independent
Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Bessarabian Orthodox Church.