Yury Harauski, a former member of Belarusian authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s special security forces, has confessed in court to taking part in the kidnapping of three opposition figures who ended up dead.
Harauski offered his apologies to the relatives of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, former Deputy Prime Minister Viktar Hanchar, and businessman Anatol Krasouski, who had gone missing in 1999, as his trial started on September 19 in a Swiss court.
Harauski confessed to taking part in the abduction of the three men but added that he was not aware of why they were kidnapped and said he did not take part in their killings.
During his testimony, Harauski said Zakharanka was kidnapped in Minsk on May 7, 1999, driven to a military base outside the Belarusian capital, and then shot by his superior, Dzmitry Paulichenka, a lieutenant colonel who had headed the special unit.
He added that Hanchar and Krasouski were abducted in September 1999 while they were leaving a sauna in Minsk and later shot execution style by Paulichenka.
According to Harauski, the two men's bodies were buried sometime later and their clothes and belongings were burned.
Harauski first declared in 2019 his involvement in the unit that orchestrated the disappearances of opposition politicians. Paulichenka has rejected Harauski's comments on what happened, saying his comments were “nonsense” and alleging that Harauski was thrown out of the unit for criminal activity.
Lukashenka, in power since 1996, has denied any official role in the disappearances.
Harauski in 2018 applied for asylum in Switzerland, settling in the northern city of St. Gallen, where the trial is being held.
The Associated Press said earlier that an extract of the court filing, obtained by its reporters, indicated that prosecutors planned to seek a three-year prison sentence -- of which two would be suspended -- for Harauski.