Prosecutor’s office cannot find General Zakharanka’s murderers for 10 years

The prosecutor’s office of Minsk has extended the term of investigation of the disappearance of the former Internal Affairs Minister Yury Zakharanka until June 24.

The notification of Minsk prosecutor’s office on extension of terms of investigation in the case of disappearance of Yury Zakharanka has been received by a human rights activist Aleh Vouchak.

“The term of investigation has been prolonged till June 24, 2009,” Aleh Vouchak said in an interview to the Charter’97 press-centre. “It has been stated in the notification of Minsk prosecutor’s office signed by investigator Y. Varauka. It is a standard document consisting of three sentences, and in fact it is another runaround. I have already about 15 of such letters already. By such notifications the prosecutor’s office simply wants to give an account to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Commission on Human Rights. It could be stated that the investigation hasn’t got somewhere. We still have no hopes that something would change”.

As we have informed, the former Internal Affairs Minister Yury Zakharanka went missing in May 1999. Many people in Belarus and abroad believe that he had been abducted on political reasons, and possible assassinated. The Belarusian authorities state that the investigation hasn’t been finished yet, and the reasons of Zakharanka’s abduction and his whereabouts are unknown.

The international community believes that high-ranked Belarusian officials, in particular, the former Minister of Internal Affaires Uladzimir Navumau, former Security Council secretary Viktar Sheiman, the former Interior Minister Yury Sivakou and commander of special task squad Dzmitry Paulichenka – are implicated in abductions of Yury Zakharanka and other leaders of Belarusian opposition.