Zakharanka family demands IC to provide case information

The family of former interior minister Yury Zakharanka, who was kidnapped in May 1999, sent a request to the Investigation Committee.

The family wants to stop the investigation into the disappearance of the politician and give them all documents for examination, BelaPAN learnt from Aleh Vouchak, a representative of the affected party, the mother of the disappeared politician Ulliana Zakharanka.

Ulliana Zakranaka and her representative Aleh Vouchak ask in the request to head of the Belarusian Investigation Committee Valiantsin Shaeu to explain to them on what grounds a decision on closing the investigation in the criminal case over the disappearance of Yury Zakhanka has not been taken so far. They propose to close the criminal case under article 29 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus and provide them with the case files.

The criminal case over the disappearance of Yury Zakharanka was opened on September 17, 1999, under article 101 of the Criminal Code (intentional murder without aggravating circumstances). The date of the crime has not been defined, but the day of the kidnapping of Yury Zakharnaka, which is also a crime as the request says, is known to have happened on May 7, 1997. As 15 years since May 7, 1999, have passed, the criminal case was to be closed on May 7, 2014, the request to the IC head says.

“We fear that the investigation will never end so that Zakharanka's family and the public cannot receive information about the results of the 15-year investigation,” Aleh Vouchak said. “This format of the investigation is convenient for the authorities to say to the public that they are looking for the people guilty of the kidnapping.”