Minsk authorities ban picket in memory of Yury Zakharanka

Sviatlana Zavadskaya, widow of kidnapped ORT TV channel operator Zmitser Zavadski, received a refusal from the deputy head of Minsk city executive committee to her application on holding a picket in Minsk on 7 May, dedicated to the 9th anniversary of disappearance of General Yury Zakharanka.

As Sviatlana Zavadskaya told to Narodnaya Volia newspaper, on 21 April she filed an application for holding a picket on 7 May 2008, the day when Yury Zakharanka had been kidnapped.

The aim of the picket is to attract attention of the public to the fact that cases of the famous people disappeared in Belarus are not really investigated and also to the fact that International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance should be adopted and ratified by the Republic of Belarus. This convention is additional guarantees to Belarusian citizens from enforced disappearances and other violation of their rights to freedom and personal security.