Geneva, Aug 30 (AFP/APP): An alleged former member of a Belarusian elite police unit will stand trial in Switzerland next month, accused of participating in the disappearances of three political opposition members, a Swiss NGO said Wednesday.
Yury Garavsky, a “former member of President Alexander Lukashenko’s SOBR unit, will stand before a criminal court in St. Gallen, Switzerland on 19-20 September”, said the TRIAL International organisation, which fights against impunity for war crimes.
Regional authorities in the northeastern Swiss canton of St. Gallen confirmed to AFP that Garavsky’s trial would begin on September 19, but have not commented on his whereabouts or other details about the case.
According to TRIAL, he is not currently in custody.
The NGO said Garavsky stands accused of having participated in the enforced disappearances of three major political opponents of Lukashenko in 1999: former interior minister Yury Zakharenko, along with former deputy prime minister Viktor Gonchar and his close friend, the businessman Anatoly Krasovsky.
Zakharenko vanished in May 1999. Then in September that year, Gonchar and Krasovsky were abducted.
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