Belarusian man repeats murder confession at Swiss appeal trial

A Belarusian man accused of helping to kill three opponents of Alexander Lukashenko repeated his confession in court on Tuesday, as the St Gallen Cantonal Court heard his appeal. SRF reported that the man’s own statements remain the only evidence against him.

The 47 year old is alleged to have belonged to a special unit that shot and secretly buried three opposition figures in Belarus in 1999. He is charged in Switzerland with enforced disappearance, although the alleged crimes took place abroad.

The man first made the allegations when he applied for asylum in Switzerland. In a 2019 Deutsche Welle documentary, he said he had helped remove the three opposition figures and would have been killed himself if he had disobeyed orders.

Non-governmental organisations and relatives of the victims subsequently filed a criminal complaint. Swiss law allows prosecution for enforced disappearance committed abroad if the alleged perpetrator is in Switzerland.

The District Court of Rorschach acquitted the man for lack of evidence, both on the charge of enforced disappearance and on a charge of misleading the administration of justice. The acquittal on the latter charge is final. The private prosecutors appealed against the acquittal on the enforced disappearance charge.

The man’s asylum application was rejected, but Switzerland granted him temporary admission because returning him to Belarus is currently considered too dangerous, regardless of whether his account is true.

The appeal hearing began with a delay after the interpreter became stuck in traffic. The court also refused to admit a privately commissioned expert report, ruling that it had not been obtained lawfully through mutual legal assistance. The relatives of the missing opposition figures were not questioned because they had not witnessed the alleged killings.

When questioned about his military career, the defendant said he had worked for the SOBR special unit from 1998. He then unexpectedly said that the unit had detained and “liquidated” former Belarusian interior minister Juri Sacharenko on May 7, 1999, and had liquidated two other opposition figures in September.

The confession was broadcast live to a separate courtroom, where an interpreter translated it for the victims’ relatives. They considered the account credible and said they were relieved to learn what had happened to their loved ones.