{"id":3681,"date":"2013-07-17T09:53:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3681"},"modified":"2013-07-17T09:53:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:53:02","slug":"belarus-christian-who-runs-homeless-shelter-facing-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3681","title":{"rendered":"BELARUS: Christian Who Runs Homeless Shelter Facing Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/barnabasfund.org\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Barnabas Fund<\/a>, July 8, 2013<\/p>\n<p>A young Christian man who has turned his home in Belarus into a shelter for the homeless is facing up to two years&#8217; imprisonment after being accused of leading an unregistered religious organization.<\/p>\n<p>Aleksei Shchedrov, 28, is being investigated on criminal charges following police raids on the shelter in the village of Aleksandrovka, Grodno Region, in February and April.<\/p>\n<p>The authorities have taken issue with a prayer room, which is used by residents and local villagers, at the site, but Aleksei insists that he is running a charity, not a religious organization.<\/p>\n<p>He said, &#8220;I am a Christian and I help those who are in need. I give them food, a bed, a bath, and clothes, and I pray together with them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Aleksei set up the shelter in December 2011 and estimates that he has since helped almost 100 people.<\/p>\n<p>He is being investigated under Criminal Code Article 193-1, which punishes &#8220;organization of or participation in activity by an unregistered political party, foundation, civil, or religious organization.&#8221; Violators face a fine or up to two years&#8217; imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"http:\/\/barnabasfund.org\/UK\/News\/News-analysis\/Christian-who-runs-homeless-shelter-in-Belarus-facing-jail-for-praying.html\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Barnabas Fund, July 8, 2013 A young Christian man who has turned his home in Belarus into a shelter for the homeless is facing up to two years&#8217; imprisonment after being accused of leading an unregistered religious organization. Aleksei Shchedrov, 28, is being investigated on criminal charges following police raids on the shelter in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3681\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">BELARUS: Christian Who Runs Homeless Shelter Facing Jail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3682,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3681\/revisions\/3682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}