In Switzerland, former SOBR officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Yury Garavsky will be tried, whom accused of participating in the disappearance of political opponents of Alexander Lukashenko in 1999. Meduza writes about this with reference to a press release from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the non-governmental organization TRIAL International, and the Belarusian human rights center Viasna. The case will be heard at the St. Gallen Criminal Court.
According to Viasna’s lawyer, Pavel Sapelko, the prosecution of the alleged member “squadron death” Lukashenka testifies that “justice for international crimes can and will be carried out regardless of state borders.”
In 2019, Garavsky told Deutsche Welle that he was involved in the murders of the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus Yury Zakharenko, the former head of the Central Election Commission of the republic Viktor Gonchar and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky. They disappeared in Minsk in 1999, and the investigation was unable to establish the details of what happened.
Garavsky now lives in Switzerland, where he applied for political asylum. Relatives of the missing people turned to the Swiss prosecutor’s office with a request against him. During the interrogation, Garavsky fully admitted his guilt and was at large until his case was taken to court.
As a former fighter of the Belarusian SOBR said, Lukashenka’s opponents were kidnapped and killed by a detachment, which included him. The order to detain them was given by Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Pavlichenko, who shot the kidnapped. The then head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yury Sivakov and the secretary of the Belarusian Security Council Vector Sheiman were informed about what was happening.
