Squadrons of Death in Belarus Investigation Continued

“Squadrons of Death” in Belarus – Investigation Continued

Published on the ‘Belarusian Partisan’ Web-site http://www.belaruspartisan.org/m/politic/338379/

Famous Belarusian politicians – Yury Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar and a businessman Anatol Krasouski were kidnapped in Minsk in 1999. A TV cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski disappeared without a trace in the summer of 2000. It has been repeatedly stated by the kidnapped people’s relatives as well as by lawyers and journalists that these crimes don’t have statutes of limitations, and that the patrons and executors of these crimes will be severely punished sooner or later. It is high time to recall and update findings about the terrible events.

The European Union lifted sanctions against 170 Belarusian officials, including the President Lukashenka not long ago. However, they were continued in relation to four people, including the Belarusian ex-ministers of Internal Affairs Yury Sivakou and Uladzimir Navumau, a former Manager of Presidential Affairs Viktar Sheiman, and a former SWAT brigade commander Dzmitry Paulichenka. The international community suspects the latter of direct involvement in the crimes.

The ‘Belarusian Partisan’ reporters have visited the people, who had relation to the most resonant criminal cases in Belarus.

Frank confessions by Siarhei Savushkin The Belarusian court convicted former members of “Almaz” special group at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Valery Ihnatovich and Vadzim Malik as well as a student of Police Academy at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Alaksei Huz and the already twice-convicted Siarhei Savushkin for kidnapping Dzmitry Zavadski. In particular, Ihnatovich and Malik were sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery, bandit attacks, and murders. Also, both of them were found guilty of kidnapping the TV-cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski. Alaksei Huz was sentenced to 25 years of jail for his participation in a gang as well as for buying, carrying, and selling an explosive device. Savushkin went off light. He was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment for the attempted robbery with violence. Savushkin was released from prison in three years and 9 months after the moment of his detention. He changed his surname and fled to Germany. However, he was deported as an illegal immigrant from there later on.

Both then and now, we are not sure that these people actually kidnapped the colleague in the past. Even if they did it, they may have passed him to somebody else. It is strange that the Belarusian legal investigators haven’t managed to find Dzmitry’s corpse, being fully convinced that Ihnatovich and his gang kidnapped the TV-cameraman, having found a sapper shovel with Zavadski’s ‘biological traces’ in Ihnatovich’s car. It is worth mentioning that neither during the legal investigation nor during the trial the Ihnatovich’s gang members gave any evidence on the kidnapping case. It rarely happens with criminals. Ihnatovich behaved strangely in the courtroom. He shouted in court that he was not guilty, putting all the blame on the Jews. Siarhei Savushkin was interviewed several times by Belarusian journalists on his release from jail. He reiterated that he hadn’t kidnapped anybody. Siarhei changed his surname some time later and tried to move to Germany. Presently, he is serving his sentence in the open-type correctional facility No.55 for… stealing a bicycle. It was possible to contact him by mobile phone. However, it took a lot of time and efforts to get Siarhei’s consent for his interview, since he was afraid of ‘bugs’. Finally, it became possible to meet Siarhei in the penal colony. (The journalist had to pretend she was the interviewee’s girlfriend at that.) The open-type correctional facility No.55, where Savushkin is serving his sentence

Savushkin is 48 years old. However, being skinny, he looks as if he was 60. “I do not get out of prisons! Having been deported again from Germany, somehow I had to earn for a living. And I have only 10 grades of secondary education, three prison sentences and poor health,” the experienced criminal complained about his life.

Siarhei Savushkin

Siarhei Savushkin noted in his interview 11 years ago that none of the sides wanted to see him alive. However, here he is sitting on the bench and showing scars from handcuffs. "Aliaksei Huz promised me a career in the Russian army and Russian citizenship. At the end of June, we met with Ihnatovich for the first time, in order to discuss the trip to Chechnya. I remember it very well that we left before July 7th. It wasn’t on July 7th in the morning as everybody told us for sure. I don’t remember the exact date. It could be July 3rd or July 5th… The legal investigator was so eager to link the date of our departure to the date, when Zavadski disappeared. We left for Pyatigorsk from Minsk through Homiel and Ukraine. Ihnatovich had friends in the Terek Cossack Army. And the 22nd GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) brigade commander was waiting for us there. We were accepted to the Cossack troops and sent to Mozdok and to the military base in Khankala from there. Ihnatovich and Malik were driving in turns to Pyatihorsk. All their talks were about Chechnya and our fight for Russia.”

Taking into account close cooperation between the Belarusian and Russian special services, there appears a question: Why none of Russian citizens, including Yuri Churekov, a famous Cossack ataman from North Caucasus wasn’t interrogated then? Obviously, they saw the group in Chechnya. Consequently, they could tell the guests’ arrival and departure dates. Presently, the ataman Churekov is imprisoned for the arms smuggling from the Donbas… Also, it’s worth mentioning that Ihnatovich was detained for the first time as the alleged Chechen militant in Shali. A press-officer Anatoliy Platonov witnessed his detention and told Dzmitry Zavadski about the Belarusians, who were fighting in the Army under the leadership of the Chechen commander Khattab. The ORT cameraman repeated the story in his interview to the ‘BDG’ newspaper. Zavadski never met Ihnatovich in Chechnya. However, it’s quite possible that he saw some other Belarusian citizens among the Chechen guerillas and the federals there. However, let’s return to our latest talk with Savushkin.

- Did you meet Belarusians from outside of your group in Chechnya? - No, I didn’t. However, I was on the base at the field kitchen all the time.

- What happened, when you came back? - The road police stopped and searched our car on our way home. The Russians have saved a copy of the search report. The criminal investigation in Belarus stated later on that they had found a shovel with Zavadski’s genetic material in the car. There wasn’t certainly any shovel there. We were detained in Minsk a couple of days after our arrival. For the first time in my life, I heard Zavadski’s surname during the legal investigation procedures. Initially, the legal investigator tried to convince me that I had murdered Gleb Samoilov, despite the fact that I wasn’t an RNE member and I didn’t know the guy at all. They gave me a paper with the decision on my detention for 30 days in the detention center on suspicion of the murder. Then, the legal investigator brought a rope they had found in the apartment of the killed Azerbaijanis. He told me that it was my rope with my DNA on it. I asked him, if he really believed that I had murdered them. “I don’t know, but the rope is yours,” he replied. Then the legal investigator pressurized me to slander Ihnatovich and blame him for committing all the crimes. We were kept in Valadarka prison [a pre-trial prison in Minsk – editor’s remark]. I cut both of my hands, my neck, and my belly with a razor in protest there. I was taken to a psychiatric examination in Navinki [a psychiatric hospital in Minsk – editor’s remark] afterwards. The legal investigator Branchel insisted that I had a sore throat and needed an injection. He harassed me, saying that I would be taken to a special hospital, where the injection would be made forcefully, if I refused the injection there. They took me to an interrogation in a neighboring room in Navinki after the injections and started asking me excitedly: “How did you murder Zavadski? How had you come to Chechnya? What road did you use to go there?” I felt that my eyes blurred and that I was too weak to utter a word. Everybody knows what happened next.

- How are you planning to live further? - My term of imprisonment expires soon. I would like to leave the country, where neither law nor justice can be found.

Bad friends Siarhei’s father Mikalay Savushkin puts all the blame for his son’s problems on the bad guys, who misled his offspring: - The son was born very weak. As a child, he suffered from bronchitis, and doctors failed to consider his allergic reactions, while prescribing penicillin to him. Consequently, Siarhei lost his hearing by 50%... Bad guys appeared among his friends after his graduation from the 10th form.

He spent three years and a half in jail on charges within the Ovcharenko brothers’ case, connected with drugs. Ovcharenko lives in St. Petersburg now… They got acquainted with Aliaksei Huz, a student of Police Academy at the Ministry of Interior at a gym in approximately the year of 1997. Huz beat up his company commander and got excluded from the Academy later on. He was going wrong, in short… The guys attended close combat fighting trainings together. As I understood it from talks with my son, the police was trained there. He didn’t know Ihnatovich at that time at all. Aliaksei came to visit us and brought a grenade with him in the year of 1998. He told us that he had bought it near a beer store and proposed Siarhei to explode it at a proving ground for fun. He left the grenade in a package at the entrance door and went to the kitchen. The armed police patrol intruded into the apartment some five minutes later. Huz kept silent and my son took the whole blame, declaring that the grenade belonged to him. Thus, the person from the group used Siarhei as a fall guy for the first time. Consequently, he had to spend the whole term of 1.5 years in a penal colony. It is strange that Huz was supported in court by the company commander he had beaten up before. On release from prison, my son continued to communicate with Huz despite the foul play in the past. Siarhei was accused of robbing an apartment in Uruchcha micro-district in Minsk some time later. His coat with a reference note about his release from Vaukavysk penal colony was found at the crime scene. However, the coat had been taken from my son in a fight by the unknown people a week before the robbery. He was beaten so hard that a trophic ulcer appeared on his leg. Consequently, he couldn’t move without a walking stick. The witnesses stated that all three robbers in masks were tall guys and that they were moving quickly. And my son is slightly over 170 cm in height.

- It is known that Siarhei got acquainted with Ihnatovich not long before his departure to the war in Chechnya. Did you know about their plans? - Huz introduced him to Ihnatovich and Malik approximately on June 25, 2000. However, the latter were reluctant to take my son with them at first. They thought that he was quite useless with his hearing problems, also being so narrow-minded and simple. He could leak information about them, if any. By the way, for this very reason I don’t believe that he could be engaged in Zavadski’s kidnapping, if Ihnatovich’s group committed the crime. Finally, Huz convinced his friends to take Siarhei with them to Chechnya.

- What happened on their return? - They came back on August 1st. Siarhei was detained for the first time on August 4th. Consequently, he was arrested on August 17th. It became known that Hleb Samoylau, the head of RNE branch in Belarus was killed at that time. The legal investigators made an attempt to accuse my ninny of committing this murder, too! Also, they made an attempt to accuse him of killing a family of Azerbaijani people, murdered on March 22nd. At that moment of time my son knew about Ihnatovich only by hearsay. Siarhei mentioned one important fact during our meetings in the colony later on. A polygraph was used once during his interrogation. It means that the recording of his confessions is left somewhere. Like quite a few of other important details, it wasn’t attached to the case. I submitted dozens of appeals to the General Prosecutor’s office and the Presidential Administration. They sent nothing but formal replies to me every now and then.

- Why did Siarhei appear again behind bars after the early release from prison? - He fled to Germany on his release. Then, he was deported and rejoined a bad company in Minsk. His schoolmate Kostsia Kokhan started to engage my son in a suspicious business – slot machines in Kobryn, the ‘Rental Empire’ firm on spare parts for cars rental services. By the way, Kokhan appointed my deaf and exhausted son to the position of Director General in the latter company and burdened him with all financial risks there. Then, all at once he proposed Siarhei to change his surname to his mother’s surname. Shortly afterwards, it appeared that my son had ‘lost his passport’. What a coincidence, right? When Siarhei changed his passport, Kokhan left for Moscow and invited insistently the son to come there. However, Siarhei opened a tourist visa under a new surname and went to the town of Worms in Germany instead. He met an immigrant from Kazakhstan named Irina Khokhlova there, and they started to live together. Siarhei worked illegally as a gardener and a builder. Also, he worked for Turks until arrested and sent back to Minsk again. I’m sure that Kokhan made use of my son’s ID for his personal criminal affairs in Russia. He comes on rare occasions to Belarus with his first passport to visit his parents. By all means, he can’t be seen as Savushkin in Belarus. Actually, there is no guarantee that Kokhan didn’t have any relation to certain structures. ‘There were several guns there…” Aleh Alkayeu, the former chief of Minsk Pre-trial Jail No.1 narrated a lot about his observations in ‘The Firing Squad’ book, in documentaries and numerous interviews. It was him, who compared the dates, when he had given the firing gun from the safe by his commanders’ order with the dates, when the Belarusian politicians disappeared. Mr. Alkayeu confessed in ‘The Gangs’ documentary that he had managed to shoot two cartridges off from the same firing gun before the forced emigration from the country. The first cartridge was shot off to the ground. Mr. Alkayeu took the bullet casings and took them with him to Germany later on. The bullets from the second cartridge were shot off to a tree trunk and remained there. If the legal investigation is resumed, it will be possible to compare the bullets with the found ones at the burial place, since they couldn’t pierce the sculls right through. Mr. Alkayeu conducted the whole procedure on May 27, 2000. He had a witness there. Presently, the person is a citizen of the United States of America. For the first time over the years, Mr. Alkayeu told journalists the direct location of the cache not far from Dudutki village, so that they could verify that nobody had known about the tree. Otherwise, if would have been cut down by the people, who were not interested in the legal investigation.

The firing revolver, kept by Mr. Alkayeu The former chief of Pre-trial Jail No.1 coped to communicate with Ihnatovich in the detention facility. He is convinced that the former ‘Almaz’ officer has committed enough crimes for the capital punishment, but the latter exchanged his life for the life-long silence. Mr. Alkayeu believes that the prisoner would tell everything he knew to his relatives, for sure, on learning about the death sentence to be executed on the following day.

Ihnatovich’s parents stated that their son was innocent. Aliaksei Huz’s mother told journalists that her son was to be imprisoned for 8 years, since his initial sentence had been reduced by one year. They hadn’t been allowed to have meetings for one year and a half. Huz’s mother was planning to visit her son in Mahilou penal colony, where the latter was transferred to. The colony administration refused to explain the reasons for the transfer. It is known that Mr. Alkayeu received a letter, signed by Arkadziy Chvankin, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs on April 30, 1999, i.e. a week before Zakharanka’s kidnapping. The top ministerial official asked Mr. Alkayeu to supply V.N. Dzik with a firing gun for exercises. However, it’s only now that Mr. Alkayeu has disclosed another interesting detail of this story. Another copy of the letter was sent to some colonel Malinin from military detachment No. 3214. Thus, it appears that he supplied the person with another firing gun with a silencer from the military unit. Mr. Alkayeu learned from publications in the press that this type of firearms had been used during the armed robbery in Barysau. Ihnatovich was charged with the crime later on. Thus, the ‘gang’ had two firing guns in their disposition, not one, as it had been suggested before. Mr. Alkayeu concludes that one firing gun might have been used for the possible shooting of people and the second gun was obviously used during the raids and robberies, committed by the squad.

Arkadziy Chvankin has never had any relation to military exercises. He used to be Deputy Commander for Rear Services, i.e. dealing with economic matters. Lately, Mr. Chvankin was noticed holding the position of MAZ car factory construction manager in Venezuela. It is known that the well-known Viktar Sheiman was personally dealing with staff recruiting for the mission to this country. The Belarusian Helsinki Committee’s experts noted that in their analysis of events some 15 years ago.

Sheiman’s ambitions and thirst for power went beyond the limits of reasonable in the spring of 1999. A top secret document was published in the mass media at that time. It was approved by the Security Council of Belarus. According to the document, it was planned to found secret headquarters at the Ministry of Justice of Belarus, in order to ensure ‘legal assessment to the actions of radical opposition leaders’. There appeared rumors among Valadarka detention facility jailers about the possible opening of some ‘special prison’ in the town of Dziarzhynsk (Minsk region). Uladzislau Mandryk, the prison guard company commander was supposed to become the chief of this establishment. He has been promoted to colonel by now. Presently, he works as the Chief on Arrangement of Penitentiary Process at the Department on Execution of Sentences of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It looks like he was relied on at some moment of time, but something went wrong and the ‘special prison’ didn’t appear in the final run…

Awards and heroes Paulichenka was detained as a suspect on Zavadski’s case on November 22, 2000. However, he was released from custody without any required documents by Lukashenka’s personal order shortly after his detention. Aliaksandr Leanienka, Presidential Security Service officer was detained on the same charges and released for the lack of corpus delicti in a short while, too. The independent legal investigation suspected Leanienka of driving Zavadski’s car to the airport and leaving it there. It is known that the major worked for the ‘Almaz’ Special Forces later on. Moreover, he was noticed beating Kazulin in 2006. Minsk information service doesn’t have his phone number on the lists. The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed to journalists that major Leanienka had been awarded a medal for "exceptional courage and bravery shown in the performance of official duties". There was published a confession of some officer of internal troops in the independent press in 2001. The person named the people, who supposedly had left the military detachment 32/14 for capturing the people, who were unwanted by the authorities: lieutenant Koklin, senior warrant officer Murashka, the re-enlisted soldiers Budzko and Navatarski as well as some Mekiyanets, a soldier from the automotive army company. The ensign Balynin remained in the detachment. He was aware of the squad activities.

Here is the testimony in full. The Belarusian Partisan Web-site didn’t exist at that time. Here’s a quotation from an anonymous publication on TUT.BY: ‘Being a former soldier of the special forces of internal troops, I would like to tell the following. I served in the military unit 3214 of Internal Troops of Belarus. Then, I served in the SWAT at the military base near Barysau. In September 1999, I witnessed the events, which in my opinion were directly linked to the disappearance of politicians Hanchar and Krasouski that took place in that period of time. I’ve been afraid to tell about it since then as the people, who were engaged in the affairs, are ready for everything. There was a group of re-enlisted soldiers in the first military company that consisted of more than 100 people. They served in a different way. Actually, all of them were the so-called ‘maroon berets’. The group was directly subordinate to the commander of the first company Paulichenka. He was a major at that time. The people were leaving the military detachment approximately once a week. They were in plain clothes, but given the arms and masks. They were quite frequently on these missions, as far as I remember. The group served in such a way that, actually, nobody knew about their tasks, apart from the direct executives as well as the commander, indeed. The orders were given directly by Paulichenka. There was an ensign Balynin aka Baloo in the group. However, Paulichenka always commanded personally. Baloo was never taken on missions, since he was thick and clumsy. The group used two cars for their transportation – BMW 525 and the red-painted Audi 200. The latter was the US replica of the ordinary Audi 100. Both cars were the property of the SWAT detachment. They had been taken from a store of confiscated items. There were used different plaques on the cars – the civil plaques, the red plaques, any plaques… They had a great number of car plaques at their disposal. And they had access to all the plaques. Thus, e.g., they frequently used the registration numbers 02 21 ММ and 02 24 ММ. The cars had special permits under the windshields for the vehicles to pass everywhere. They are colloquially named the ‘don’t touch me’ permits. Nobody could stop the cars with the passes – neither the road police, nor the military traffic police. A maroon ‘Ford’ minivan with a similar permit appeared at the group’s disposal some time later. All the cars were with tinted windows. From time to time, they had a white ‘Opel’ at their disposal, too.

Once, the group went to the city, as usual, on the BMW and ‘Audi’ cars in mid-September 1999. As I was told later, they had captured two people in Minsk, who were standing near a Jeep Cherokee. They were seized. Then, our cars quickly arrived and the people were thrown to the cars, one per car. Mekiyanets, a soldier from the automotive army company was ordered to drive the jeep. Thus, the motorcade came to the military detachment at around 1 a.m. at night. I heard the cars coming. However, they didn’t enter the military detachment immediately. As soon as the cars stopped, there were heard two shots with a short break. The BMW and ‘Audi’ entered the territory of the military detachment shortly afterwards. As it seemed to me and as I was told later, the jeep had been left in the forest, close to the military detachment. Then, the officers and the re-enlists had supper and went to bed.

We were ordered to dig a pit in the forest on the following day after breakfast at around 9.30 a.m. Paulichenka followed us. We were digging the pit almost until lunch. It was huge and deep with the upper layer of sand and the lower layer of clay and stones. Having dug the pit, we returned to the military unit. Several re-ensigns loaded crowbars and sledgehammers to GAZ-66 military trucks and went to the pit in the forest in the evening. An armored personnel carrier followed the trucks with the automotive army company commander Koklin, who was a lieutenant at that time. The jeep was driven to the pit, squeezed with the APC and covered with soil. Paulichenka didn’t permit to take anything from the vehicle. Somebody wanted to take a car radio, but Paulik prohibited doing it. The only thing they took was a large car battery. It was used on different cars as a reserve battery in the automotive army company later on. By the way, they had taken gold jewelry from the dead bodies and thrown it to the lake. The operation on capturing the people was implemented, among other, by a SWAT ensign Murashka, who was around 40 years old, and re-ensigns with maroon berets Yury Budzko and Navatarski, who was Uladzimir by name, if I’m not mistaken. They were engaged in other missions too. I don’t know the names of several more people from the group, but I can identify them. One of them, standing next to the banner, is often shown on TV in commercials, dedicated to the SWAT veterans. Their photos can be found in the booklet about our military forces.

The squad participants received money after the mission. Minister Sivakou passed the remuneration to them through Paulichenka. I know that he said it was ‘to everyone for moral appeasement’.

Also, I know that being shot, the people were assassinated ‘In the name of the President!’

Paulichenka travels across the country now. He gathers his people, former ‘maroon berets’ and tells them: ‘We haven’t had our say yet. We have to defend the President.’ He says that there’s plenty of money there. However, quite a few people don’t trust him after all that buzz in the media. They feel reluctant to take risks. My hands are free of blood. Now I fear for my life and the lives of my family members. I request the KGB, the Public Prosecutor’s office, and journalists to find and interrogate all the people I’ve mentioned. Ask the direct participants – Budzko, Navatarski, Mekiyanets, Koklin, Murashka, Paulichenka. Interrogate them as well as the soldiers, who were on duty that evening and dug the pit. They saw everything. This issue cannot be buried. That’s all.’

Practically all mentioned soldiers and officers were presented to different awards later. Thus, it can be officially verified that the ensign Andrei Murashka was awarded a medal ‘For Meritorious Service’ as the Attendant’s Assistant at the Operational Security Department of Public Security Police and Special Police of Transport Department of Internal Affairs by order No. 582 in 2004. The senior ensign Uladzimir Navatarski and the staff sergeant Valery Pichuhin served as SWAT snipers in the same military detachment 32/14. Both of them were awarded by the same order No.124 of March 14, 2005. By the way, a police report on administrative offense was composed in relation to Navatarski in 2011. The Tax Inspection of Leninski City District of Minsk at the Ministry of Taxes and Duties brought the case to court. Navatarski had been a founder of ‘WebConto’ private enterprise, dealing with accounting software since 2009.

Lieutenant Yury Koklin was promoted to the major and awarded a medal ‘For Meritorious Service’. Information about Budzko and Mekiyanets has not remained in the open sources. The senior ensign Sviataslau Balynin’s public page in ‘Odnoklassniki’ contains a photo with Dzmitry Paulichenka, accompanied by the former brigade commander’s wife and son. Balynin became the best friend of the family. One can only guess how he could win the favor. Balynin and Paulichenka

Balynin – to the right Balynin with Dzmitry and Artsiom Paulichenka

Paulichenka himself manages formally the ‘Honor’ Association of SWAT Veterans. The Executive Director of the Association Andrei Shyrei used to lead a criminal gang. One member of the gang worked as an officer at the ‘Golden Taller’ commercial bank. The group dealt with racket of individuals and legal entities. By the way, Sviataslau Balynin used to be Paulichenka’s Deputy in the ‘Honor’ Association. However, even this fact didn’t lead legal investigation to the idea that Paulichenka might have been engaged in the crime. Being a persona non-grata in the EU, the former Minister of Internal Affairs Sivakou teaches the International Law in the MITSO private university in Minsk. Another ex-Minister Uladzimir Navumau lives and works in Moscow. As soon as Sheiman was dismissed from the post of Public Prosecutor General, nothing was heard about him for a couple of years. However, he managed to beg Lukashenka’s pardon. Since more than two years, he has been working as the Manager on Presidential Affairs, travelling periodically to Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

The unexpected visit The Prosecutor General Aleh Bazhelka and the KGB Chairperson Uladzimir Matskievich were removed from office immediately after Paulichenka’s release from pre-trial jail. The legal investigation found the area, where the assassinated politicians might have been buried. There was ordered technical equipment from Russia for carrying out excavations in the area of 2 ha between a meadow and a wood area close to the North Cemetery [near Minsk – editor’s remark]. Bazhelka sent a personal request to Vladimir Ustinov, the Prosecutor General of Russia at that time. This very request was canceled by a new Prosecutor General Viktar Sheiman in a couple of days. Matskievich worked for a long period of time in the Embassy of Belarus in Yugoslavia afterwards. He came back to Belarus last year. Aleh Bazhelka was hiding near Yaroslavl, fearing for his life. However, he has also returned to his native country by now. Bazhelka and Matskievich are neighbours now. Both of them live in the same block of flats in Chkalov Street [in Minsk – editor’s request]. I rang to A.Bazhelka’s apartment, and he opened the door. He underscored that he didn’t refuse completely to be interviewed. ‘I’m keeping silent now, but it isn’t forever.’ The concierge told me that Bazhelka used to leave the apartment for months before, but added that he returned for constant residence in the flat in Chkalov Street since recently and, ‘having no car’, went regularly somewhere with a trolley, filled with products.

A middle-aged woman opened me a door in the house, where Ivan Branchel, former head of legal investigative group, dealing with the case No.414100, was registered. She appeared to be his distant relative and told me that ‘Ivan had left in the unknown direction long time ago and didn’t get in touch with his relatives’.

‘The Godfather-4’ documentary was produced by NTV a couple of years ago. It contains testimony of the former conscript soldier of Special Forces Dzmitry Novichak on the case. He heard from his friend major Vasilyeu about direct involvement of Paulichenka and a group of five people in Zavadski’s kidnapping. (Vasilyeu used to serve as Deputy Commander on Physical Training in the military detachment 32/14.) Shortly afterwards, Vasilyeu was sent to jail for 21 years, allegedly for killing Liliya Sayko. It’s worth mentioning that Ihnatovich was initially accused of committing the crime. Dzmitry Novichak spent 4 years in prison for racketeering. He met Vasilyeu in jail by chance. ‘Paulichenka showed me a knife, trying to get me to confess to the murder of Zavadzski’, the latter managed to say. Novichak lives in the Netherlands now. He is about to give a new interview in a short while. The written evidence, given by Novichak

The latest information about Vasilyeu appeared, when he was transferred to Mikalai Statkievich’s prison cell for some reason. Vasilyeu was shown in ‘As It Is’ program on the Belarusian ANT TV channel, where he denied the existence of ‘squads’ under Paulichenka’s commandment and his awareness of them. However, as soon as the ‘Narodnaya Volya’ journalists tried to take a similar interview, the Penitentiary Department sent a letter to the newspaper editorial, saying that Vasilyeu had refused to talk.

The publication doesn’t contain the whole range of people, who know about the activities of the so- called ‘death squads’ in Belarus, by far. The main thing is that we would like to draw public attention to the fact that the statute of limitations will never be applied to the cases. Everybody understands that there won’t be any breakthrough in the legal investigation, until Aliaksandr Lukashenka and Viktar Sheiman are in power. However, the Belarusian society will not allow burying the fates of the kidnapped people by then.

Katsiaryna Andreyeva, exclusively for ‘Belarusian Partisan’ Web-site 18:44 30/03/2016