JOHN FERNANDEZ, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In the opening day of a federal court trial, attorneys for a Santeria church accused Hialeah city officials Monday of discrimination for interfering with the church's right to sacrifice animals in its rituals.

"This thing has nothing to do with animals," Jorge Duarte, attorney for the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, told U.S. District Judge Eugene Spellman during opening arguments. "It has to do with politics and discrimination."

Duarte and two attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city to overturn Hialeah ordinances that ban the ritual killings of animals. They claim the laws violate the church's freedom of religion.

In the courtroom, Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez sat next to three attorneys hired by the city to fight the civil lawsuit. On the plaintiff's side, Ernesto Pichardo, president of the church, sat with his attorneys.

Under questioning by Pichardo's attorneys, Rawley Jordan, Hialeah's acting police chief when the ordinances were enacted, testified that city council members passed the laws in September 1987 because of "intense" pressure from community groups who denounce Santeria.

In other testimony, Pichardo's brother, Fernando, an administrator of the church, said city officials unjustly delayed granting the church building and zoning permits in May 1987. He also testified that city council members made several public statements condemning their religion's practices which prompted threats of violence against the church.

Attorneys for the city deny treating the church any differently than other applicants seeking building permits. They claim the ordinances mirror state law forbidding ritual slayings of animals.

Practitioners of Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion practiced in secrecy by an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Hispanics in South Florida, sacrifice chickens and other animals to summon and appease their gods.