{"id":209674,"date":"2026-10-29T21:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T18:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/209674\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T21:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T18:40:24","slug":"latuska-hopeful-that-alleged-death-squad-members-conviction-will-lead-to-trials-in-poland","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/209674\/","title":{"rendered":"Latu\u0161ka hopeful that alleged death squad member\u2019s conviction will lead to trials in Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

October 29, Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>The conviction of Juryj Hara\u016dski, a former elite police officer who claimed involvement in the abduction and murder of Belarusian opposition figures in 1999, will hopefully facilitate the application of universal jurisdiction by courts in Poland, Belarusian opposition politician Pavie\u0142 Latu\u0161ka wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141atu\u0161ka noted that only a handful of European countries may be expected at present to use this legal mechanism but expressed hope that the sentence for Hara\u016dski would encourage Polish courts to follow Switzerland\u2019s example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hara\u016dski was charged under the Swiss Criminal Code\u2019s Article 185bis, which penalizes enforced disappearance and was introduced as Switzerland sought to implement the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, \u0141atu\u0161ka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, the trial exposed the role of Belarusian security agencies in the abduction of Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s opponents, and now all those responsible, including the masterminds of these crimes, should be brought to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 26, a court in Switzerland\u2019s St Gallen imposed a suspended two-year prison sentence on Hara\u016dski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being fully acquitted at his first trial in September 2023, Hara\u016dski was found guilty of kidnapping businessman Anatol Kraso\u016dski in 1999 but acquitted of a similar charge involving former Interior Minister Juryj Zacharanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the September 22 appeal hearing, Hara\u016dski said that Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka and Viktar \u0160ejman, a former head of Belarus\u2019 Security Council, had ordered the abductions. He was reluctant to provide further details about the disappearances and refused to answer questions from the victims\u2019 lawyer. He also declined to make a closing statement, according to a courtroom report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hara\u016dski, who admitted to being a member of a government-run death squad that allegedly abducted and killed \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s opponents in 1999, was fully acquitted three years ago, with the judge concluding that Hara\u016dski might have been involved in the crimes, but that his role had not been established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swiss law did not allow prosecutors to charge the former police officer with more serious offenses, such as murder or complicity in murder, because the alleged crimes were committed in Belarus. He was instead charged with enforced disappearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relatives of the disappeared appealed the acquittal, seeking a guilty verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, media reported that Hara\u016dski had admitted to being a member of a government-run death squad that allegedly abducted and killed Zacharanka, Kraso\u016dski and opposition politician Viktar Han\u010dar in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hara\u016dski apologized to the relatives and friends of the alleged victims. He said he hoped to receive \u201cfair punishment,\u201d adding that a harsh sentence could discourage others from coming forward with confessions about crimes committed by the Belarusian authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, Christos Pourgourides, rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, concluded after visiting Belarus that \u201csteps were taken at the highest level of the state to actively cover up the true background of the disappearances.\u201d Evidence suggested that \u201csenior officials of the state may themselves be involved in these disappearances,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hara\u016dski trial was important in itself because Belarusian investigators have never established the fact of the murder. Belarusian investigators admitted that the opposition figures had vanished, but said they did not know what had happened to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 16, 1999, the former head of the central election commission, Viktar Han\u010dar, and his friend, prominent businessman and public figure Anatol Kraso\u016dski disappeared in Minsk. They walked out of a bathhouse and got into their car, but it never left the parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were presumably abducted and killed by members of a death squad. Broken glass and traces of blood were found at the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2000, investigators arrested D\u017amitryj Pa\u016dli\u010denka, commander of an elite police unit, in connection with the abduction, but \u0141uka\u0161enka ordered his release. The Belarusian ruler fired the Uladzimir Mackievi\u010d as chief of the Committee for State Security (KGB) and Aleh Ba\u017ee\u0142ka as prosecutor general to put the investigation on hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other opponents who disappeared around the same time were former Interior Minister Juryj Zacharanka in 1999 and journalist D\u017amitryj Zavadski in 2000. \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s death squad is also suspected of involvement in these crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Hara\u016dski, a former member of the SOBR unit under Pa\u016dli\u010denka\u2019s command, confessed in an interview with Deutsche Welle<\/em> to participating in the abductions of Han\u010dar, Kraso\u016dski and Zacharanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He claimed that Pa\u016dli\u010denka executed the abducted men by shooting. Zacharanka\u2019s body was cremated, and Han\u010dar and Kraso\u016dski were buried at the interior ministry\u2019s training ground, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hara\u016dski gave that interview to in exchange for political asylum in Switzerland. Human rights activists initiated his prosecution for \u201cinvolvement in multiple disappearances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n
\n \"\"