Ishparsovo, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, August 21, 2020
sobory.ru
The Orthodox parish in the village of Ishparsovo in the Republic of Bashkortostan has been fined $2,690 (200,000 rubles) by the Sterlitamak City Court for an outbreak of the coronavirus.
“The religious organization of the Orthodox parish of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Ishparsovo … is found guilty of committing an administrative offense … and a penalty is imposed in the form of an administrative fine of 200,000 rubles,” the court said in its decision, reports Interfax-Religion.
It was established that the parish violated the federal law on sanitary and epidemiological welfare, thus causing a threat to the health of life and people, when it held a service on May 9 despite the ban on mass rites and services.
In early June, the local branch of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing reported six cases of community-acquired pneumonia amongst the parishioners, and two confirmed cases of coronavirus infection.
In July, the Church of the Archangel Michael in the central Russian Kemerovo Province was fined $1,400 for holding a mass service on Pascha night.
On Saturday, a priest on the Greek island of Kalymnos was arrested for urging the faithful not to wear masks on the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos on August 15.
