August 29, Pozirk. Anatol Kotaŭ of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund (BSSF), who had been missing since August 21 after landing in Turkey, left the country the same evening at 6:35 p.m. A private yacht departed with him from the Black Sea port of Trabzon bound for Sochi, DW reported, citing a Trabzon police source.
“Neither Kotaŭ nor those accompanying him had any legal issues, and nothing appeared suspicious,” the source said, adding that Turkish police see no grounds to open an investigation into his disappearance.
The source did not specify how many people traveled with Kotaŭ.
Although Kotaŭ had been living in Poland and presented a Polish travel document when leaving Trabzon, Warsaw refused a request from the Belarusian opposition to open a probe into a possible abduction and declined to provide legal assistance, opposition politician Pavieł Łatuška told Belsat.
Kotaŭ’s associates have since hired a law firm to pursue legal support.
The BSSF urged the international sports community and human rights organizations to take notice of the activist’s disappearance, describing him as a “long-standing advocate for the rights of Belarusian athletes.”
Kotaŭ is also a member of the ethics committee of the World DanceSport Federation and contributes to the U.S.-based Athletes for Freedom Foundation’s working group.
“In recent years, Kotaŭ has been at the forefront of defending the rights of Belarusian athletes, openly opposing the [Alaksandar] Łukašenka regime and its repressive practices,” the BSSF said.
His disappearance is “a matter of grave concern not only for Belarusian society, but for the global sports and human rights community,” the group stressed.
A former Belarusian diplomat and official in Alaksandar Łukašenka’s administration, Kotaŭ left government service in 2020 and supported the post-election protests in Belarus. Later he joined the BSSF and emigrated to Poland, fearing politically motivated persecution.
Last year, he was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison in Belarus on extremism-related charges, a label Minsk frequently applies to punish opponents in exile.
Earlier in 2024, another high-profile Belarusian opposition figure, Anžalika Mielnikava, also disappeared after leaving the European Union. Her whereabouts remain unknown.
