Dzmitry Zavadski

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Dzmitry Zavadski (Belarusian: Дзмітрый Завадскі; born August 28, 1972 - July 7, 2000) was a Belarusian cameraman of Russian Public Television ORT.

On July 7, 2000 Dzmitry Zavadski drove to the Minsk airport to meet colleague Pavel Sharamyet. His car was later found at the airport, but Zavadski has not been seen since. The Belarusian authorities were failing to determine the fate Dzmitry Zavadski and leading opposition figures Jury Zacharanka and Viktar Hanchar, as well as businessman Anatol Krasouski who also disappeared in 1999 and 2000.

Belarus came under international criticism, despite the conviction by Minsk Regional Court on March 14, 2002 of four men (two of whom were former members of the elite Belarusian police unit Almaz) of crimes including kidnapping of Dzmitry Zavadski. His body was never recovered and the circumstances of his presumed death were not explained.

Human rights monitors regarded the trial, which took place behind closed doors, and convictions as flawed. In September 2002 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated that it was “seriously concerned about the lack of progress” and established an investigative sub-committee to probe into the “disappearances”. ^[1]