English By Myroslava Gongadze Share on Facebook Print this page
Ukrainian authorities are investigating documents and audio recordings that appear to reveal a plot to murder Pavel Sheremet, an investigative journalist who was killed in a car bombing.
Ukrainian police confirmed Monday that they had received documents and recordings from 2012 in which anonymous people discuss a plot to kill Sheremet. The recordings have been passed to an expert for analysis.
The news website EUObserver alleged that the recordings are of Vadim Zaitsev, who at the time was chair of the Belarusian KGB, discussing plans in April 2012 with members of a special unit to kill perceived enemies of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, including Sheremet, who used to live and work in the country.
13:35, 06.01.21 Politics 600
The leaked tapes from the former Belarus KGB chief Vadim Zaitsev s office suggest that the Lukashenko regime may have been involved in the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet in Ukraine.
Lukashenko has for 20 years already been accused of the alleged involvement in the killing of Sheremet s colleague Dmitriy Zavadsky (he had been abducted just before he was supposed to meet with Sheremet). Rumors about the so-called death squads in Belarus first span in the late 1990s, when Lukashenko s main opponents at the time – Zakharenko, Gonchar, and Krasovsky – went missing one after another. Under Lukashenko s rule, other politicians died as well, under strange circumstances. Among them was Gennady Karpenko (known, among other things, for the attempt to initiate Lukashenko s impeachment in Parliament).
08:58 06.01.2021
Investigative actions in connection with possible Belarusian trace in Sheremet murder case may be carried out in Europe in January – Avakov 4 min read
Ukrainian law enforcement officers have a larger volume of materials indicating that until 2012 the Belarusian special services had been discussing the possibility of killing journalist Pavel Sheremet than the one that was made public in the media, said Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. In December, we received several more materials than were published yesterday [on January 4] in the media, which show us that in the circles of the Belarusian special services until 2012 - the last date, in my opinion, April 2012 - were discussed issues, related to the murder of Pavel Sheremet. These materials were then accepted by us. We have made a number of international legal orders since then, Avakov told reporters in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
Report: Lukashenko loyalists plotted murders in Germany
Officials plotted an assassination campaign against exiled dissidents and opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, according to a clandestine recording.
Germany was one of the intended sites for a campaign of attacks on exiled Belarusian dissidents and opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, according to a clandestine recording published by the online news platform
EUobserver on Monday. The audio file appears to feature a conversation from April 2012 involving former Belarusian intelligence service (KGB) head Vadim Zaitsev and two unidentified men, who are presumed to be state security officers.
The recording was passed on to
EUobserver by the Belarusian dissident Igor Makar. He told DW that he was sent the file by an anonymous source in the KGB. Makar is the former deputy commander of the Almaz Special Anti-Terrorism Unit, which is attached to the Interior Ministry, and he has been living in exile in Ger
Photo from UNIAN, Viktor Kovalchuk
Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv has left in custody ruled to further hold in custody former Donbas war volunteer and musician AKA Riffmaster Andrii Antonenko, a suspect in the murder case of journalist Pavel Sheremet.
Today, December 17, the jury considered the motion by Antonenko s lawyer Dmytro Kruhovyi to ease the measure of restraint for his client, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
At the start of today s hearing, the court did not allow guarantors, MPs, friends and family of Andrii Antonenko, including his mother and brother, into the courtroom, while allowing reporters from several media outlets to attend.