Authorities have been refusing to recognize general Zakharanka dead for 12 years

Court refuses to start a civic proceeding on recognizing the abducted general dead.

The charter97.org web-site learnt about that from the head of the Legal Assistance to Citizens organization and a former prosecutor office’s investigator Aleh Vouchak.

“Yesterday I sent the appeal by Jury Zakharanka’s daughter Alena to the court of Minsk’s October district. The court has been delaying the process of recognizing general Zakharanka dead for 12 years. They would not provide us any information, the civic proceeding on recognizing him dead has not been yet started, although by the law the authorities should have done it 12 years ago – in 2002. A hearing was set on 5 June on this case, but then it all changed abruptly. At the same time the claimants were not informed about this. In this regard Alena Zakharanka appealed with a request in order to clarify everything”, - the lawyer told.

The human rights activist added that he also received a response from the Investigatory Committee on prolongation of the time of preliminary investigation of Jury Zakharanka’s disappearance until 24 September 2014.

“This is the last time that the investigation period gets prolonged, since, according to the current legislation, the authorities will be able to close the books on the case due to the limitation period expiration. Also for over a month the prosecutor general’s office has not been responding to us on why they won’t recognize the general’s mother a victim in the case, since the law allows it”, - Aleh Vouchak noted.

We would remind that general Jury Zakharanka disappeared on 7 May 1999. According to the official version, this took place in the evening in the area of Zhukovskogo Street in Minsk, when he was violently abducted by “unidentified people” and taken away in a car into unknown direction. Criminal investigation on the case of the disappearance was started only on 17 September 1999 under the article 101 of the criminal code. The witnesses of the abduction, who were found not by the investigatory agencies, but a civic commission searching to the disappeared general, claim that Zakharanka was violently taken away by several men.