Yuri Harauski

Yuri Harauski is a Belarusian citizen, former member of an elite unit of the Troops of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs (SOBR), which was created by President Lukashenka in 1998. Harauski is accused of having participated in the enforced disappearances of two emblematic figures of the opposition to the Lukashenka regime and of a businessman, who disappeared in 1999, allegedly at the hands of SOBR.

Harauski appeared in the media in 2019, reporting in a Deutsche Welle article that he had been involved in the three disappearances in 1999. He provided extensive details both on the context of the kidnappings and on the killings of the victims. According to the information available, he arrived in the Switzerland to seek asylum, arguing that his life was at risk in Belarus given his will to speak out about his past involvement within SOBR.

In Spring 2021, two relatives of the victims, along with TRIAL International, the Fédération International pour les droits humains (FIDH) and the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, filed criminal complaints for the crime of enforced disappearances with the office of the Prosecutor of St. Gallen (Swiss Canton where the suspect was residing). On 2 May 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor concluded the investigation and charged the suspect in court.

Yuri Harauski’s trial took place before the District Court of Rorschach (canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland) on 19-20 September 2023. On 28 September 2023 the court acqutted Yuri Harauski of the crime of enforced disappearance of the three political opponents in 1999. While it recognised the responsibility of the regime in the crimes, the judges were not convinced of the involvement of the defendant in the events.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Since his first election as president of Belarus in 1994, Aliaksandr Lukashenka has been ruling with an iron fist. For three decades, political opponents, human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and ordinary citizens have been deprived of their fundamental rights and subjected to massive and systematic state violence, ill-treatment, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention. Enforced disappearances have been one of the tools used by the government to shut down any contestation.

In 1998, Lukashenka created the SOBR unit composed of elite troops of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which received orders from the highest government levels, unofficially tasked with surveilling, kidnapping, and eliminating political opponents.

Between May and September 1999, in Minsk, several leading figures of the opposition disappeared allegedly after being seized by members of the SOBR in circumstances that are still not clear. Amongst them were Yury Zakharenka, former Minister of Interior; Viktar Hanchar, former Deputy Prime Minister during the early years of Lukashenka’s presidency; and Anatoly Krasouski, a businessman and close friend of Hanchar.