‘They were shot in back’. Daughter of Lukashenka’s rival meets with alleged death squad member

Alena, the daughter of Belarus’ ex-minister of Interior Yury Zakharanka with Yuri Garavski, a former soldier of the Belarusian SOBR (Special Rapid Response Unit), who earlier confessed to being involved in the murder of her father.

The talk took place in the office of the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. It was Alena Zakharanka who insisted on the meeting.

For a very long time, we have thought that they were killing my father slowly by chopping off [his limbs]. This was unbearable. To be at peace with myself, I need to know that it [murder] happened quickly,” Alena explains.

In turn, it took some time to persuade Mr Garavski to speak to Zakharanka’s daughter, because the man anticipated that her anger might turn on him. But then Garavski changed his mind, saying that the fault was not his, but the whole system’s.

Alena Zakharanka asked him about how her father was watched, abducted and killed. According to Garavski, the former minister was arrested, handcuffed and put in the car. Then they quietly left the city; only radio was on. Then SOBR members got out of the car, put Zakharanka on the ground, and their commnder Dzmitry Paulichenka delievered two shots; the body was placed into the trunk, taken to the crematorium and burned, Garavski claims.

“They put him face down. Your father was shot in the back, as well as Hanchar and Krasouski. All of them was shot in the back,” he stressed.

In the early 2000s, after the disappearance of Yury Zakharanka, politician Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasouski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski, there were reports about the so-called ‘death squads’ that abduct and kill the dissidents. In 2004, the European Union imposed personal sanctions on four persons who might have been involved in or aware of the kidnappings – former Interior Minister Uladzimir Naumau, former head of the presidential administration Viktar Sheyman, Yury Sivakou, who occupied the post of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the disappearance of politicians, and Dzmitry Paulichenka, commander of the special forces brigade of the Interior Ministry.

Key witness in murder of Lukashenka’s critics? DW interviews alleged death squad member

In mid December, the German media outlet Deutsche Welle made public the interview with 41-year-old Belarusian citizen Yuri Garavski. The interviewee said he had been with the Belarusian SOBR from its very beginning, and had been trained to fight serious offenders involved in organized crime.

If his words are anything to go by, the orders were given by Colonel Dzmitry Paulichenka (Dmitry Pavlichenko), the founder and commander of SOBR. What is more, the top officer personally shot down the three critics of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Garavski claims. The man expressed confidence that the then Interior Minister Yury Sivakou and Security Council Secretary Viktar Sheyman knew what was going on behind the scenes; Garavski suggests that President Lukashenka must have been in the picture, but cannot say safely.

Yuri Garavski arrived in Switzerland in October, 2018. He has not revealed the details of his departure. His case is being considered, but the man says he still fears for his life. According to the former member of the Belarusian SOBR, he is ready to be punished for taking part in the assassinations. However, he wants to be tried in a European country, not in Belarus.

Photo proving connection between Paulichenka and Garavski emerges

belsat.eu

News