A conservative MP has proposed criminal liability for “disrespectful behaviour” in churches. The bill has passed the first reading, while critics compare it to the notorious Pussy Riot case in Russia.
The proposal looks to include Article 171 into the Criminal Code, entitled “Contempt of religious beliefs in a house of worship”. The author of the bill is MP Paulius Saudargas, a member of the conservative Homeland Union (TS-LKD) group which is part of the ruling coalition.
According to Saudargas, his initiative is a response to recent incidents. Last year, a music band filmed their video in a church in Palanga.
In another case, three actors dressed as clerics performed a stunt during service in a church in Šalčininkai, a predominantly Polish-speaking district in south-eastern Lithuania. They were advertising their event, Zero Live Show, and offering joints to the congregation.
“Apparently, those performers are not intimidated by administrative fines,” Saudargas believes.
According to his proposal, which passed the first reading in the parliament with 48 votes in favour, 16 against, and 29 abstentions, “mocking religious beliefs” in a church or other place of worship would be punishable by imprisonment of up to two years or community service.
The parliament, Seimas, will continue discussions of the bill on June 8.
However, it has already attracted criticism from Saudargas’ fellow MPs, both in the opposition and the ruling coalition.
“How are we then different from the Russian Federation, which sends the Pussy Riot girls to prison for what looks like a disturbance of public order?” asked MP Morgana Danielė of the liberal Freedom Party.
Even fellow conservatives Kęstutis Masiulis and Arūnas Valinskas questioned the proposal, saying that two years in prison would be too harsh a punishment.
Edita Rudelienė, deputy head of the Liberal Movement group in the Seimas, said in a statement that such a sentence would be disproportionate.
“I myself respect the church, but this legislative initiative to protect the sacredness of places of worship is too harsh an attempt by the state to curb hooliganism,” she said in a statement, adding that she thought current regulation was sufficient.
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