UN gives Belarusian authorities 180 days for investigation of Krasouski’s case
- 7.05.2012, 9:09
The United Nations Rights Committee has passed a decision in the case of Anatol Krasouski’s abduction.
During the 104th Session in the end of March 2012, the UN Human Rights Committee adopted a final decision on the case of forcible abduction of the Belarusian businessman and public leader Anatol Krasouski.
The Committee condemned the Belarusian authorities for a denial to thoroughly investigate the forcible abduction of Anatol Krasouski, and to take appropriate steps to mend the situation. According to the decision of the Committee, Belarus must take effective steps, including careful investigation of the facts, criminal prosecution and punishment of those guilty, and to provide relevant information to relatives of the disappeared and guarantee compensation to them
We remind that on November 16 2008 the suit of Iryna, Valeryja and Anatol Krasouski was registered by the UN Human Rights Committee. Since then the official procedure of examining of the claim started.
The suit of Krasouski’s family was prepared by Böhler, a law company from the Netherlands; it consists of 100 paragraphs, 25 documents for more than 1000 pages were attached to it. In their own name and also on behalf of Anatol Krasouski, abducted in September 16, 1999, Iryna Krasouskaya and Valeryja Krasouskaya urge the state of Belarus:
1) to interrogate suspects in the forcible abduction of Anatol Krasouski, named in the special memorandum of the deputy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Christos Pourgourides immediately;
2) to meet numerous requests of the members of Anatol Krasouski family and of the international community to carry out a careful and open investigation of Anatol Krasouski’s disappearance;
3) to locate and inform about the burial place of Anatol Krasouski;
4) to compensate moral and material damaged to the victims of Anatol Krasouski’s forcible abduction.
Initially the strategy of the Belarusian authorities was playing for time. Thus, the mission of Belarus in the UN sent the Human Rights Committee a demand to offer the full text of the suit and all the attached documents in Russian (the text was prepared in English). After receiving the translation, after more than a year after the complaint’s registration (which exceeded the official term given for a defendant for reaction) Belarus finally sent its answer, in which it insisted that the suit was unacceptable in letter and in spirit.
The UN Human Rights Committee found the grounds offered by the Belarusian authorities insufficient, and noted Krasouski’s claim. In their decision the Committee condemned the Belarusian authorities for their denial to investigate Anatol Krsouski’s case carefully and obliged them:
- To carry out a careful investigation of the facts, to prosecute and punish those guilty of the crime;
- To provide adequate information to the victims of Anatol Krasouski’s abduction;
- To guarantee adequate moral and material compensation to the victims of the abduction;
- To guarantee exclusion of such crimes in the future.
The state of Belarus has 180 days to inform the victims of the abduction and the UN Human Rights Committee on the measures taken. In case there would be no appropriate reaction, the UN Committee is to appoint a special rapporteur responsible for legal communication with Belarus, who is to push for Belarusian authorities’ discharging their obligations.