Yuri Zakharenko’s Wife Demands Official Recognition of His Demise :: Charter'97 :: News

Head of the human rights organization “Center for the legal assistance of the population” Oleg Volchek submitted to court a plea to recognize general Yuri Zakharenko dead. Volchek has been authorized to do so by the spouse of the missing ex-minister Olga Zakharenko.

Oleg Volchek explained this move by the need to solve property problems, which emerged after the disappearance of Yuri Zakharenko.

“Zakharenko has a flat here and other property, without which one cannot get an inheritance. Olga Zakharenko determined to do this because the investigation has been underway for three years and there’s no way she can get the results soon. Their family isn’t planning to return from Germany. Generally speaking, they’d like to come back but not until the change of the ruling regime,” – said Oleg Volchek in an interview to the Radio Svaboda.

The law enables to recognize a person dead through the court if in course of three years there has been no news of his whereabouts. The procedures begin with an application to court and allocation in the newspaper of an advertisement with a request to report to the court any data on the destiny of the disappeared persons. Such a request by Olga Zakharenko recently appeared in the “Narodnaya Gazeta”. Another announcement must soon be published in one of the local editions. Two months after that the court has to consider the request and pass its decision.