Facts
Since Lukashenka was first elected president of Belarus in 1994, political opponents, human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and ordinary citizens have been deprived of their fundamental rights and subjected to massive and systematic state violence, ill-treatment, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention. Enforced disappearances have been one of the tools used by the government to shut down any contestation.
In 1998, Lukashenka created the SOBR composed of elite officials of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs which received orders from the highest government levels, and was unofficially tasked with surveilling, kidnapping and eliminating political opponents. Harauski was a member of the SOBR.
Between May and September 1999, in Minsk, several leading figures of the opposition disappeared allegedly after being abducted by members of the SOBR in circumstances that are still not clear. Amongst them were Yury Zakharenka, former minister of interior; Viktar Hanchar, former deputy prime minister during the early years of Lukashenka’s presidency; and Anatoly Krasouski, a businessman and close friend of Hanchar. The families of the victims made numerous attempts to obtain information on the whereabouts of their relatives. However, law enforcement authorities in Belarus systematically refused to prosecute perpetrators and to hold them accountable.
Procedure
On 4 June 2021, after Harauski’s location in Switzerland was confirmed, relatives of disappeared persons along with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), TRIAL International and the national NGO Human Rights Center Viasna filed criminal complaints for the crime of enforced disappearances committed in 1999 with the Office of the Prosecutor of St. Gallen (the Swiss canton where the suspect was residing).
The suspect was arrested on 16 July 2021 and made a full confession, providing detailed descriptions of the crimes for which he was being investigated. He was released the same day. In October 2021, Harauski was again interrogated and provided statements consistent with the ones made earlier.
On 2 May 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor concluded the investigation and indicted the suspect with enforced disappearances.
The trial of Yuri Harauski took place on 19 and 20 September 2023 before the District Court of Rorschach (canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland).
On 28 September, during the oral sentencing, the Court acquitted Harauski of the enforced disappearances, even though he had publicly and repeatedly confessed to and apologized for having participated in the kidnappings and murders in question. The Court held that his participation in the crimes could not be established beyond reasonable doubt.