Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski Were Kidnapped 21 Years Ago
- 16.09.2020, 8:03
We remember!
Opposition politician Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasouski were abducted in Minsk twenty-one years ago.
On the evening of September 16, 1999, Hanchar and his friend Krasouski arrived at the bathhouse located in Minsk at 20 Fabrychnaja Street. They were last seen at about 10:35 pm when both left the building and got into Krasouski's Jeep Cherokee.
According to the investigation, during the inspection of the adjacent territory, there were found fragments of car headlights, traces of the car braking and hitting a tree, as well as traces of blood. The examination results showed that the degree of reliability about the origin of bloodstains from Hanchar is 99.6%, writes gazetaby.com.
The criminal case on the disappearance of Hanchar and Krasouski was opened by the Minsk prosecutor's office.
Opposition representatives, relatives of the missing, and the international community believe that Hanchar and Krasouski were kidnapped for political reasons. They suspect the highest officials of Belarus to be involved in this crime.
Four Belarusian citizens, whom the European Union considers to be involved in opposition politicians' disappearances in 1999-2000, are still subject to visa and economic sanctions. Among them are former Interior Minister Uladzimir Naumau, ex-head of Lukashenka's administration Viktar Sheiman, Yury Sivakou, who served as Interior Minister during the disappearance of politicians, and Dzmitry Paulichenka, a former commander of a special forces brigade of the Interior Ministry troops.
On November 23, 2000, Dzmitry Paulichenka, the commander of the special forces brigade of the Interior Ministry troops, was arrested. His arrest was preceded by a report from the head of SIZO No. 1, Aleh Alkaeu, about the seizure of the so-called "firing" pistol on the eve of the disappearances of Zakharena, Hanchar, and Krasouski.
Viktar Sheiman also fell under suspicion. However, Paulichenka spent only a few hours in the pre-trial detention center. He was released by the personal order of the President. A few days later, Prosecutor General Aleh Bazhelka and KGB Chairman Uladzimir Matskevich lost their positions. Bazhelka's place was taken by Viktar Sheiman.
In December 2019, ex-fighter of the special detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yury Harauski, who calls himself a former fighter of the SOBR (special rapid reaction unit of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus), in an exclusive interview with DW told how opposition politicians were kidnapped and killed, seeking the resignation of Lukashenka: "I participated in murders of Zakharenka and Hanchar."