Christian Group In Belarus Told To Leave Its Church

MINSK -- An evangelical Christian group in Minsk called The New Life has been asked to leave its church, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

City officials visited the church, telling the congregation's leadership that the church building should be vacated by August 19.

The building is an old barn in the Minsk suburbs that was used by farmers as shelter for their livestock in the Soviet-era.

In the last three years the congregation has been fighting to preserve their building, which local authorities say was "illegally privatized by the church in the 1990s."