2024 - Doubts before the St. Gallen court - Belarus case: Lukashenko aide with contradictory statements

The Rorschach District Court is in the focus of international media and international politics. Around 30 media professionals from home and abroad were present in St. Gallen when the alleged Lukashenko aide arrived in front of the courthouse. There were also representatives of human rights organizations and two private plaintiffs, daughters of the disappeared opposition members.

The defendant from Belarus seemed to be entangled in contradictions in his statements on the first day of the trial. The judge obviously doubted his statements. The questioning lasted the entire morning. The judge highlighted contradictions from previous interviews. The defendant justified this several times with translation errors.

The case is being handled at the Rorschach District Court. For reasons of space, the hearing will take place on the premises of the St. Gallen Cantonal Court. Because: The case is making waves beyond national borders. The criminal offense of enforced disappearance is based on a UN agreement and is being treated in this way for the first time in Switzerland and Europe.

What happened? There were protests in Belarus at the end of the 1990s. The population demonstrated against the dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko. Three opposition figures disappeared without a trace in 1999, including former Interior Minister Yuri Zacharenko. For 20 years no one knew what had happened to the opposition members.

NGO tracked him down in eastern Switzerland

Then a man stepped in one documentary to “Deutsche Welle” and said that the men were dead. He knew this because he was involved in their murder as a member of a special unit. If he had refused to take part, he too would have been shot.

This man, who is now charged, was in eastern Switzerland at the time and was tracked down and reported by non-governmental organizations. He had applied for asylum in Switzerland around a year earlier.

The defendant is said to have been part of a Belarusian special unit. At least that was what the alleged delinquent said. Because of the stories that kidnappings and murders were carried out unprepared, the judge questioned the professionalism of the special unit.

He told the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) that the actions had been prepared for weeks. “A contradiction,” said the judge. The defendant’s answer: “I didn’t say that.” He also denied further statements he had made to the SEM.