Harry Pogoniaylo: Hanchar, Krasouski Disappearance Case Solved At Operative Level

Human rights activists and relatives of the disappeared are demanding that the investigation should be resumed.

September 16 is the 20th anniversary of the disappearance in Belarus of the influential businessman Anatol Krasouski and his friend Viktar Hanchar, a politician who did not recognize the results of the referendum that extended Lukashenka’s presidency. About three months before his disappearance, Hanchar became one of the initiators of the alternative elections for the head of state and headed the alternative Central Election Commission, reports Deutsche Welle.

The case was initiated under the “homicide” article

Nothing was done on “hot scents”, human rights activist Aleh Vouchak told DW: “Not representatives of the law-enforcement agencies, but the relatives of Hanchar and Krasouski were the first to come with me to the place where, presumably, Hanchar and Krasouski were forcibly abducted. This was indicated by the brake track of the jeep, which belonged to Krasouski, fragments of glass and headlights, as well as traces of blood.”

A criminal case on the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski was instituted under the article “intentional homicide”, but in 2003 the investigation was suspended. In the same year, human rights activist Harry Pogoniaylo, representing the interests of relatives of the missing, said in an interview with DW that he managed to get the resolution of investigator Chumachenka on his hands, and prepare a protest. After that, the Prosecutor General’s Office was forced to cancel the investigator’s resolution and resume the investigation.

The terms of investigation were extended till December 2018, but the case was not suspended. As founder of the We Remember Foundation Iryna, Krasouski’s widow, said to DW at the end of 2018, she received a notification about the suspension of the preliminary investigation “due to the failure to identify the person to be subjected”.

“I will appeal this decision and ask them to provide me with the documents on the basis of which it was made,” said Iryna Krasouskaya. “I’m sure that there are a lot of interesting things in them”.

“Two weeks is enough to bring the case to court”

Harry Pogoniaylo claims that at the operational level, the case of the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski has been solved. “It remains to carry out investigative actions under the auspices of the Investigatory Committee,” he explained, “to submit materials of the operational developments and actions of involvement of those who are guilty as evidence, give the collected materials an assessment by the prosecutor and forward the case to the court.”

The human rights activist notes that the investigators involved in the investigation of enforced disappearances often changed, and one of them, now deceased, said that the investigation had sufficient data “to bring the case to the court within two weeks”. Pogoniaylo hopes that the case of the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski will be resumed, and the guilty will be brought to justice.

In 1999 - 2000, acting Chairman of the Supreme Council Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasouski, former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka and journalist Dzmitry Zavadzki disappeared without a trace in Belarus.

Subsequently, documents were published, including the report of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mikalai Lapatsik, which testified that the “death squadron” cracked down on opposition politicians and public figures. The relevant orders were given by the top leadership of the country.

The international community believes that the disappearance of Yury Zakharanka and other leaders of the Belarusian opposition involved former Minister of Internal Affairs Uladzimir Navumau, manager of affairs of Lukashenka Viktar Sheiman, former commander of the special forces of internal troops Dzmitry Paulichenka, and ex-Minister of the Interior, Yury Sivakou.