Aleh Vouchak: New Authorities Of Belarus Will Have To Return To Yury Zakharanka’s Kidnapping

The criminal case upon the fact of disappearance of the ex-Minister of the Interior has been investigated for 17 years with no results.

The criminal investigation of the enforced disappearance of the former Interior Minister of Belarus Yury Zakharanka has been extended for another three months - until March 24, 2017. The preliminary investigation of the case of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka has been going on for the 18th year, but it seems endless, belprauda.org writes.

Head of the department of the central apparatus of the Investigatory Committee J.V. Varauka has informed that the term for the preliminary investigation of the criminal case # 110352 upon the fact of disappearance of Y.N. Zakharanka has been extended till March 24, 2017. Legal representatives of the family, head of the human rights center “Legal Aid to Population” Aleh Vouchak has received this notification from the Investigatory Committee.

— Time is the main enemy of any investigation: traces of crime disappear, eye-witneses of Yury Zakharanka’s kidnapping die, evidence vanish. Have the Belarusian secret services created another “notorious dead-end investigation”?

— The time factor, of course, affects the investigation of any crime, but the new government in Belarus would have to return to the disappearance of Yury Zakharanka. The criminal case on the abduction of Yury Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar, Anatol Krasouski, and Zmitser Zavadski is still under control of the UN, US, EU, Council of Europe, the OSCE and international human rights organizations. Let me remind you that no one has canceled the sanctions against the top Belarusian officials for the involvement in the abduction of the opponents of the regime. Therefore, the full normalization of relations between Washington, Brussels and Minsk is possible only when the Belarusian authorities prove their innocence in the involuntary killings of the opposition leaders.

Until the state authorities answer the main question “Where is Yury Zakharanka, Victar Hanhar, Anatol Krasouski and Zmitser Zavadzki?” — not only the investors, but the refugees from Syria will not come here. Entry into the European economic system and the return of Belarus to the Council of Europe is possible only through the investigation of these cases.

— Probably, the concerned persons in the law-enforcement authorities have “sanitized” criminal cases long ago?

— This is a typical mistake of thinking of all those who have never been associated with the investigative work. There is no perfect crime, after which it is impossible to find traces of the crime, it is impossible to completely hide the evidence. There are lots of operatives, investigators, prosecutors, who were engaged or involved in the investigation of these cases — they all know and preserve evidence. The time will come - they will have to prove why they refused to prosecute those responsible for serious crimes.

— In your opinion, is the society aware of political disappearances? What do people think of this problem?

— Ten years ago it was more difficult to convey the truth about the disappeared citizens. Today, there are social networks, independent online media - the theme came to a new level. It seemed to me that young people would not be interested in the circumstances of the kidnapping of politicians, but I was wrong — the youth remains the most active part of the society, which is interested in political disappearances.

Tribute should be paid to the professional journalists who didn’t give up on this old, battered but ever so actual topic. Last year, the Arab channel "Al Jazeera" also adhered to this case.

We remind, ex-Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, who tried to unite former and acting officers of the security forces after the resignation, became the first victim of the "death squads". The politician was kidnapped on May 7, 1999 near his own house ...

Only on September 17, 1999 they started the criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Article 101 of the Criminal Code. The witnesses of the abduction who were found not by the investigating authorities, but by the public commission on search of the missing general, say that Zakharanka was forcibly taken away by several men.

The 15 years allotted by the law to investigate have expired on May 7, 2014, so the disappearance of former interior minister Yury Zakharanka is a subject to termination on terms of limitation.

On August 1, 2016 the Minsk City Court dismissed the appeal of 92-year-old Ulyana Zakharanka, the mother of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, on the recognition of the son deceased. The wife of the missing politician Volha Zakharanka has been handling this for 13 years.

The criminal case upon the fact of disappearance of the ex-Minister of the Interior has been investigated for 17 years with no results.