Belarusian Priest Sentenced to Three Years, Religious Outlet Reports

A Catholic priest in Belarus was sentenced to three years in prison and a substantial fine after a closed-door trial in October 2026, according to a Belarusian Catholic news outlet and a human-rights organisation. The exact date of the verdict and the written judgment have not been independently verified.

The local outlet KATOLIK.LIFE reported on 3 November that Anatol Parakhnevich, the 66-year-old parish priest in Alkovichy, was tried in the Vileyka district court rather than Minsk, as earlier reports had suggested. The publication attributed the information to Belarusian Catholic believers, saying the proceedings were closed and the precise contents of the criminal case had not been made public.

According to that account, prosecutors initially pursued a treason allegation but the final conviction concerned offences described as insulting the authorities and extremism. The outlet did not publish the charging documents or a court decision. It said the priest rejected the verdict and that believers understood he had appealed. These details remain reported accounts, not findings independently established from the court record.

The Belarusian human-rights organisation Viasna also reported the three-year term on 3 November, citing KATOLIK.LIFE. Viasna said the priest had been detained since March 2026 and suffered a heart attack while in custody. Because Viasna's published account draws on the Catholic outlet, the two reports should not be counted as separate firsthand confirmations of the court documents.

The Associated Press reported on 5 November that Viasna regarded Parakhnevich as a political prisoner. AP quoted Viasna lawyer Pavel Sapelka describing broader pressure on religious communities and reported that Parakhnevich denied the charges and intended to appeal. AP also obtained a reaction from exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who characterised the sentence as politically motivated. Those assessments are attributed to their speakers; they are not a judicial finding that the prosecution was unlawful.

Parakhnevich had publicly criticised Russia's war against Ukraine and helped organise assistance for Ukrainians, according to Viasna's account cited by AP. That history provides context, but without the original indictment or judgment it does not establish which acts the court relied on, whether his sermons formed part of the charges, or the precise legal grounds for conviction.

The Belarusian government's or court's response to the reported sentence was not included in the accessible local account. KATOLIK.LIFE explicitly noted that no official public announcement had been made. TFNOS has not independently obtained a case number, signed verdict, hearing transcript or prosecution statement. The priest's denial and the reported appeal are therefore material to understanding the procedural status.

The next verifiable steps are to obtain the Vileyka district court case identification and written decision, determine whether an appeal has formally been lodged and when it will be heard, and record any response from the court, prosecution or religious authorities. A subsequent report should distinguish an upheld sentence, an appeal ruling, a pardon or release rather than treating the October verdict as the final outcome.

This account concerns the reported judicial action and its documented public reaction. It does not allege that a particular judge or prosecutor committed a crime.