New facts in high profile cases in Belarus

A former chief of Minsk pre-trial detention centre #1 Aleh Alkaeu (Oleg Alkaev) has given an interview to a Russian “Novaya Gazeta”.

In 2001 the chief of the Minsk pre-trial detention centre #1 Aleh Alkaeu wrote a report to the Interior Minister Navumau stating that exactly on the days of disappearances of Belarusian oppositionists, May 7 and September 16, 1999, the gun used for execution by a firing squad, had been taken out on the order of the Interior Minister of Belarus Yuri Sivakou. Then investigators of the Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus who fled to the US, Aleh Sluchak and Dzmitry Petrushkevich (Oleg Sluchek and Dmitry Petrushkevich), who were in charge of the cases of disappearances, made a conclusion that a death squad exists in Belarus, and abductions and murders of oppositionists had been committed on order of the Secretary of the Security Council Viktor Sheiman, and preparation had been made by the Interior Minister Yuri Sivakou and a commander of the military unit of the Interior Forces #3214, where special rapid reaction unit (SOBR) is stationed, Dzmitry Paulichenka.

- What new names of persons involved in the case of enforced disappearances in Belarus, could be names by you?

- One of them, for instance, a former deputy commander of the military unit # 3214 on physical training, major Andrei Vasilyeu. In 2002 he was sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment by a military court for killing a woman, which was in the same period when Valery Ihnatovich’s gang was tried in the case of Dzmitry Zavadski. The general attention was locked on the trial over Ihnatovich, and Vasilyeu was convicted without fuss. However it is known that while being in custody in the pre-trial detention facility, Vasilyeu told his cell-mates, and to the SWAT officer Dzmitry Novichak (Novichek) (who appeared in the film “Godbatka”), that he was there at the same time, that he was innocent and convicted for a crime of another person. Besides, he told in prison that on July 7, 200o as a member of the group of 5 persons headed by a commander of the military unit #3214 Dzmitry Paulichenka, he took part in masterminding the abduction and liquidation of the ORT cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski, and in some other secret operations of the SOBR. Even now it is clear that Valery Ihnatovich, if he is implicated in this crime, was by no means acting upon his own initiative.

- Do you think he had been wrongfully convicted?

- I do not exclude that he was a participant in the crime, but not in the role the court attributed to him. The fact is, it was important to soothe the public opinion (including the international community) urgently in that period. Out of the entire group of criminals, Ihnatovich seemed to be the most convenient one. He had more or less understandable motive – a TV item about his detention by Russia’s FSB officers filmed in Chechnya by Dzmitry Zavadski. But he was convicted wrongfully indeed. It was a too mild sentence. He deserves several death sentences for all his atrocities. One should not forget that except Zavadski, there are 7 deaths on his conscience and the conscience of court and investigatory agencies. The court found that the episodes concerning these seven deaths had not been established, and these murders are considered to be not detected till now.

- Why has it happened, to your mind?

- By finding Ihnatovich guilty on this episode, they would have to expose to the light of the day his crime partners from the SOBR.

- I know that publicly, in the Belarusian independent newspaper “Narodnaya Volya”, you addressed possible witnesses with a request to contact you. What are the results?

- There have been results. Phone calls and letters not only from Belarus, but from Russia, Europe, the US, Canada, Australia have been received. No all reports were to the point certainly. There were also unexpected offers. One of them we even decided to forward to the Office of Prosecutor General of Belarus. It was written in the letter: “We have 2 DVD discs with chronological recording of the procedures of interrogation and execution of 14 persons, including well-known ones, related to the topic you are interested in. the cost is $250,000.”

The letter addressed to the Prosecutor General of Belarus R. Vasilevich was sent twice – by ordinary mail and by an e-mail. There has been no answer yet.

And now I have grounds to ask questions personally to the Prosecutor General of Belarus: have they been able to detect the vendor of the video evidence “with chronological recording of the procedures of interrogation and execution of 14 persons” or not? If not, why so? What the numerous experts gutting computers of oppositional politicians and journalists are paid for?

Investigation department of “Novaya gazeta”

Photo: Dzmitry Novichek giving evidence about SOBR activities to Aleh Alkaeu