Christos Purgurides Speaks about His Second Visit to Minsk

In his interview to Deutsche Welle the special reporter of the OSCE Christos Purgurides said that he wanted to meet with the officer of the special police forces Zmitser Pawlichenka and the four convicts, found guilty of the kidnap of the ORT cameraman Zmitser Zavadski. He also has made an inquiry for meetings with the former workers of the law machinery Mikalay Lapatsik and Aleh Bazhelka. However, he was told that he had to contact them personally as they weren’t State officials any more. What concerns meetings with Pawlichenka and the “Ihnatovich gang” the officials said that they managed to receive the materials of the report for Strasburg that showed too much criticism. As a result President Aliaksandr Lukashenka got angry and annulled all those meetings.

Christos Purgurides also specified that he hasn’t written the report for the juridical issues and human rights of the PACE yet:

“Most probably, the representatives of the official Minsk received (in an illegal way, I think) some information that we exchanged with my secretary. The written information I exchange with my secretaries or other workers of the Council of Europe is not a document to be used without a special permission. It is a very serious question. Besides, all negotiations that we have held in Belarus have been evidently recorded and secretly listened.”

In the beginning of January Christos Purgurides hopes to finish his report about the disappearances. He also expressed the hope that the Russian authorities would help in the investigation of the disappearances in Belarus.