Aug. 5, 2004
FAMILY WANTS TO REOPEN CASE OF MISSING BELARUSIAN JOURNALIST
Volha Zavadskaya, the mother of journalist Dzmitry Zavadski, who disappeared in 2000, has petitioned the Belarusian Prosecutor-General's Office to resume the inquiry into her son's disappearance and question Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka as a witness, BelaPAN reported on 4 August. In her petition, Zavadskaya referred to Lukashenka's news conference on 20 July, when he claimed to possess evidence and documents that may help the investigation. "What surprises me is : if the relatives [of the disappeared] are so worried, why don't they come to me?" Lukashenka said on 20 July. "One came, a woman - you know the reason I can't say her name. She came to me, I received her, she asked me about a certain man that I again will not name. That woman amazed me. She did so well. I talked to her for three hours. I showed her some documents. But if I make them public now, the Zavadski case will turn into an anti-case." And he added, "I would give a lot to know what happened to [Zavadski]." The disappeared journalist's wife, Svyatlana Zavadskaya, told BelaPAN that there is "zero chance" of having Lukashenka testify, but added that the petition could gain extra publicity for high-profile disappearances in the country.
|
