Minsk Procurator’s Office Doesn’t Respond to Dzmitry Zavadski’s Relatives

According to RFE/RL

Hary Pahaniaila, well-known defense lawyer and human rights activist, submitted to Minsk City Procurator’s Office an inquiry concerning the investigation of the disappearance of the cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski. The thing is that the investigation was renewed, but Mr. Pahaniaila doubts this case that is five years old already is really investigated.

On behalf of Zavadski’s relatives Hary Pahaniaila asked the procurator’s office to check the version, according to which Zavadski’s body could be found near the town of Krupki among other unidentified bodies and buried at the local cemetery. The information about these bodies attracted Pahaniaila’s attention because Valiery Ihnatovich, found guilty in the kidnap of Zavadski, comes from that region. Pahaniaila considers the three-month silence of the procurator’s office concerning the abovementioned version as a law violation. He also says that was the way the investigators have acted during all five years of the investigation.

According to previous information of the procurator’s office, the investigators went abroad for some investigative measures, but the country of their mission is kept in secret. Zavadski’s relatives and Hary Pahaniaila assume it is Israel where the gold of Valiery Ihnatovich’s gang was found. However, in this case the connection with the search of Dzmitry Zavadski becomes quite loose.

The cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski disappeared without notice in July 2000. Several former riot squad policemen with Valiery Ihnatovich at the head were sentenced to different terms of jail for kidnapping Zavadski. However, Zavadski’s fate remains unknown as well as the person who ordered the kidnap. His relatives and Belarusian opposition believe the top-level country’s officials have relation to the kidnap and as a result the investigation is protracted.