Belarusian investigators “do not exclude” political nature of Zakharanka’s disappearance

It has been stated in the letter to the mother of the former minister of Interior Affairs Ullyana Zakharanka, deputy Prosecutor General Viktar Konan stated.

We remind that recently Ullyana Zakharanka had written an appeal to the Prosecutor General Ryhor Vasilevich, in which she asked “to give full information about what had been done by prosecution agencies over 11 years in search of my son and the persons who had forcibly abducted him”. Ryhor Vasilevich didn’t answer the letter of Zakharanka’s mother himself, but ordered his assistant Viktar Konan to do that, “Narodnaya Volya” writes.

“Work on disclosure and investigation of this crime goes on. Different versions have been offered concerning illegal actions committed against Y. Zakharanka and are studied, including mercenary motives, personal relations, motives related to his political activities, and a number of pothers,” the document signed by Konan reads.

- It should be noted that it is the first answer from the General Prosecutor’s Office on the case of Zakharanka signed by a high official, -- the answer from the persecution agency is commented by a human rights activist and a former investigator Aleh Vouchak. – Still, I certainly expected a more detailed answer. From the first paragraph it becomes clear that Konan took preparation of the answer to Ullyana Zakharanka formally. There are mistakes in the official document which are unforgivable for the official of such a level. Thus, in the first two paragraphs he writes that the case had been opened on charges relating Y.A. Zakharanka murder, and he continues to speak about murder of Y.N. Zakharanka. Does he meat 2 different persons?

All these years we were interested whether the investigation examined the political motives of General Zakharanka’s disappearance. We asked many times whether Viktar Sheiman, Yury Sivakou, Dzmitry Paulichenka, Uladzimir Navumau and Alyaksandr Lukashenka interrogated in the framework of the criminal case.

The most terrible thing is that the period of investigation under the Article “intended killing” (Article 101 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, 1960) under which the criminal case had been opened is 15 years. And now is the 12th year. If Lukashenka wins the presidential election and remains in power for 5 years more, Zakharanka’s case is most likely to be dismissed because of periods of limitations’ expiry. And the criminal investigative case conducted by the Interior Ministry would be dismissed as well. There is only one conclusion: Lukashenka does not have a right to take part in the presidential election before the chapter on the high-profile disappearances cases is not closed.