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A court in northern Switzerland on Thursday acquitted a former security Belarusian operative over the enforced disappearances of three of President Aleksander Lukashenko's political opponents in the late 1990s, said an advocacy group that spearheaded the case. Judges in the northern town of Rorschach said they were not convinced that the defendant, Yuri Harauski, a former member of a Belarusian military unit known as SOBR, was involved in the disappearances. According to the Geneva-based advocacy group TRIAL International, the court ruled that Harauski's participation in the crimes...

Victims' families had hoped for an end to 24 years of agonising uncertainty.

A former Belarusian security operative was acquitted of charges related to the disappearances of three political opponents of President Aleksander Lukashenko during the late 1990s

Lawyers for the relatives of the three victims who vanished in 1999 said they planned to appeal the decision.

ZURICH (Reuters) -A former member of a Belarusian special unit accused of involvement in the disappearances of prominent opposition figures was acquitted by a Swiss court. The case marked the first time a Swiss court had heard a case involving enforced disappearance. The defendant had sought asylum in Switzerland, arguing his life was at risk in Belarus due to his willingness to speak out about his involvement with the special unit known as SOBR that made opponents of President Alexander Lukashe