“Veteran-chastener” fled from the Russian court in Belarus

The pensioner who joined Germans and served in a police battalion in Belarus and made a veteran’s certificate later has disappeared from Russia.

Head of the veterans’ council of Pushkin District of Moscow Oblast Lyudmila Kondrashova told Evening Moscow: “Somebody tried to find him but I think that he has already left for Belarus. He stood trial there and he may have relatives there.”

A pensioner who was thought to be a Great Patriotic War veteran helped Germans, Euroradio reported earlier. The Russian Office of Public Prosecutor received copies of archive files connected with the case from General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus.

Red Army officer Syrahei M. was serving as a liaison officer, when he was captured by the German forces in July 1942. The prisoner-of-war betrayed other encircled fellow officers and joined the "Eastern" training regiment in Babruisk in December of the same year.

The former Red Army officer was a member of a punitive squad in France in August 1943 – September 1944. He was captured by US troops there. The Soviet secret services captured him in December 1945. The man was imprisoned for ten years for treason and has his military rank (lieutenant) invalidated.

The ex-chastener managed to obtain a WWII participant certificate in Moscow Oblast in 1980. He received social security allowances illegally for over thirty years.