Minsk to try alleged Nazi criminal who died in Canada years ago

July 18, BPN. Minsk is set to try an alleged war criminal who died in Canada in 2015, Prosecutor General Andrej Švied has said on state television.

He accused Vladimir Katriuk and the auxiliary police organized by the Nazis of involvement in atrocities in Belarus, including the Chatyń massacre.

Švied said this and other future trials of dead Nazi collaborators would allow authorities to establish a full picture of the occupation-era crimes. Alaksandar Łukašenka authorized the prosecution of the dead by his edict issued yesterday.

After the 2020 post-election protests, officials in Minsk have been promoting a theory that the Belarusians suffered genocide at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators during WWII. In April 2021, Švied announced that his office had opened a genocide case. The prosecutor general also edited a book that likened participants in 2020 peaceful protests to the Nazis.

In January 2022, Łukašenka signed a law that criminalized genocide denial. “The implementation of the Law will contribute to preventing distortion of the Great Patriotic War’s outcomes, as well as to uniting Belarusian society,” his press office said.