Opposition activist detained for portrait of Zakharanka

• 8.05.2013, 8:18

Anzhela Kambalava has been detained in Baranavichy.

She was standing with a portrait of missing former Belarusian ineterior minister Yury Zakharanka. Policemen came to her 30 minutes later and wrote down her passport information. They detained her when Anzhela Kambalova was going to leave the site. The activist will be tried.

The Belarusian authorities forbade pickets to pay tribute to the memory of Yury Zakharanka. However, leaflets and stickers with portraits of the abducted general and the text “We remember” and “Investigate. Try. Punish” could be seen in many towns across the country, ucpb.org reports.

General Yury Zakharanka disappeared 14 years ago, on May 7, 1999.

According to the official version, it happened in Zhukovsky Street in Minsk. He was forcefully abducted by “unidentified persons” and taken away in a car in an unknown direction.

Some years before the incident, Zakharanka was relieved of his duties for disagreeing with Lukashenka and his team. The general was highly respected by colleagues. He was involved in opening the Union of Army Officers. The authorities found his opposition activity especially dangerous.

Belarus's top officials are suspected of abduction and killing of the former interior minister.

The Belarusian authorities refuse to carry out an unbiased investigation and wait for closing Yury Zakharanka's case after expiration of the statute of limitation, human rights defenders think.