BHC Calls Cessation of Investigation into Disappearances Unjustified :: Charter'97 :: News

The Belarusian Helsinki Committee considers the decision of the Minsk procuracy detective Vladimir Chumachenko to terminate preliminary investigation into the disappearance cases of Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky to be absolutely untimely and unjustified.

As emphasized by the Helsinki Committee, during the preliminary investigation, which lasted for over three years, the investigators never really formulated the plausible explanation of Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky’s abductions, let alone managed to find perpetrators. Nor did they check out facts, implicating top governmental officials in these abductions, which had been contained in the published case files #414100 on Ignatovich’s band.

Despite immense public interest and international resonance, as testified by the formation of a special PACE commission on disappearances in Belarus, headed by Sergei Kovalev, the country’s top officials and procuracy chiefs decline to present information about the results of the investigation.

BHC believes that cessation of investigation into involuntary politically-motivated disappearances demonstrates the state’s lack of desire to conduct full and objective investigation and, therefore, raise suspicions about their own implication in these crimes. This thoughtless policy damages state interests and the prestige of the country, leading to the international political and economic isolation.