Andrei Sannikov: Lukashenko's Security Forces May Begin Testifying
- 27.10.2026, 13:52
A court ruling in Switzerland sets an important precedent.
A Swiss court found former SOBR fighter Yuri Garavsky guilty of the kidnapping of Anatoly Krasovsky and sentenced him to two years of probation. In his testimony Garavsky named Alexander Lukashenko and Viktor Sheiman as the ones who gave the orders for the abductions.
What does Garavsky’s conviction mean for holding Lukashenko himself and other regime leaders accountable? The website Charter97.org discussed this with the leader of the “European Belarus” civic campaign and ombudsman of the World Congress for Freedom, Andrei Sannikov:
— Garavsky’s verdict is a significant development. First and foremost, I would note that the trial itself and the verdict confirm the facts and conclusions contained in the 2004 report by the rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Christos Purgurides “Belarus’s Missing Persons.”
The verdict has strengthened the legal basis for the charges against high-ranking officials and security forces in Belarus. This, in turn, characterizes the political system established in Belarus as repressive and dictatorial.
— Garavsky confessed and received a two-year suspended sentence. Could this sentence encourage other participants in the regime’s crimes to reveal the truth and cooperate with the investigation?
— Many have already noted that the sentence—a two-year suspended sentence—is too lenient. Moreover, the Swiss court in the canton of St. Gallen acted quite strangely by failing to hear the relatives of the murdered politicians who were present at the trial.
Nevertheless, this is a guilty verdict, and its leniency may indeed encourage participants in brutal crimes in Belarus to approach law enforcement agencies in other countries with confessions.
— A Swiss court has handed down a guilty verdict for a kidnapping committed in Belarus by a member of the “death squad.” What significance does this decision hold for other dictatorships where forced disappearances have become a tool for maintaining power? How realistic is the prospect of holding dictators themselves accountable through the courts of democratic countries?
— Unfortunately, as of today, there are no direct mechanisms for holding dictators accountable in the courts of other countries. Rather, we should be talking about the international response to such court-proven facts of crimes against humanity.
The international democratic community and democratic states must take the criminal nature of dictatorial regimes into account in their relations with them.
However, there is another recent precedent for directly holding dictators accountable. Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is currently on trial in the United States is on trial today in the United States.