Yuri Harauski, former member of a hit squad under Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, goes on trial in a Swiss regional court on September 19 for the enforced disappearances of three opposition figures in 1999. He has confessed to the crimes. An explainer. What is this trial about? Harauski, who was a member of the SOBR military unit sometimes known as “Lukashenko’s hit squad”, is accused of having participated in the kidnapping and murders of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharenka, former Deputy Prime Minister Viktar Hanchar, and Anatoly Krasouski, a businessman and close friend of Hanchar. They disappeared in Belarus in 1999. Harauski is also accused of having kept the story secret until 2019. The case comes after relatives of two of the victims filed criminal complaints, supported by Geneva-based NGO TRIAL International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Belarusian human rights centre Viasna. These organisations also filed a criminal complaint.
