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The Trial

The abduction of Dmitry Zavadsky officially considered to be a revealed one. On October 24, 2001 The Regional Court of Minsk started hearing of the case of abduction of D.Zavadsky. The trial procedure was announced to be a closed one and was hold indoors in the Supreme Court Office. At the trial session presided judge of the Regional Court of Minsk Alexander Simonov.
On July 25 2002 Body of Public Prosecutor of Lenin District of Minsk preferred a representative of D.Zavadsky mother barrister Ihor Aksenchik a charge of slander against General Prosecutor of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Shejman, who had been accused of the commitment of grave felony. Initiation of a legal procedure caused the statement of I.Aksenchik which had been announced to the press during the court hearing of the case of D. Zavadsky’s abduction: ”In case general public prosecutor Oleh Bozhelko has not been suspended from post, as a main suspected person for the case of D. Zavadsky’s abduction would have been interrogated present general public prosecutor Viktor Shejman.”

The verdict of guilty of the abduction of D. Zavadsky was brought to the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) special subdivision officer Valerij Ihnatovich and Maksim Malik (sentenced to life imprisonment). The former cadet of MVD Academy Aleksej Huz (sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment) and the previously tree times convicted Sergej Savushkin (convicted to 12 years of custody) also were trialed on the same case of the abduction of D.Zavadsky, but the fact of their connection to the case and guilt were not established. All the sentences were passed in a close session. Nevertheless, none of them pleaded guilty. The body of the abducted journalist still has not been found.

In March 2004 The Public Prosecutor Body suspended investigation of the case of the abduction of D.Zavadsky “on the grounds of failure to reveal an utterly vanished person.” In 2005 the investigation was recommenced.

In public opinion, the charges of Zavadsky’s case and the trial were fabricated in order to hush up the excitement of the society over the abduction. Many of the executors,who became disagreeable and who had committed earlier many crimes by authorities’ request, but were not involved in Dmitry Zavadsky’s abduction, were sent behind the bars.

The main suspected persons in organizing the elimination of Dmitry Zavadsky are considered to be Viktor Shejman, former head of MVD Jury Sivakov and commander of Special Subdivision for Fast Response Dmitry Pavlichenko.

At present the criminal case which was instituted according to the fact of Dmitry Zavadsky’s disappearance has been suspended again “on the grounds of failure to reveal an utterly vanished person”. By the way, during all these years the case of Zavadsky was being recommenced and suspended four times.

“There are people exist, who were accused of being guilty of the abduction of Dmitry Zavadsky, and they are in the investigators’ hands now. How could the investigation be suspended, if it has not been established what had happened with Dmitry? Evidently, this way the investigation shows that the wrong people were convicted of journalist’s abduction. And if to consider that the verdict to Ihnatovich’s group in this part is lawful, these people should be worked with,” – thinks legal expert Harry Pohoniajlo.

“Nowadays Belarusian authorities have chosen the only acceptable for them defensive method. Criminal investigation of Dmitry Zavadsky’s abduction should continue for ever, in order to keep the public away from the secret materials, - says Svetlana Zavadskaya. – Neither Lukashenko, nor Shejman or Pavlichenko tries to prove their innocence when they hear just another directed to them accusations. Silence conspiracy today is the best guaranty that no one will ever get know anything.”