Requests for legal assistance on genocide case sent to 17 countries

“The Prosecutor General’s Office has sent requests for legal assistance in the case of the genocide of the Belarusian people to 17 countries,” the head of the General Prosecutor’s Office investigation team in a criminal case, Valery Tolkachev, told STV TV channel – as reported by BelTA

“We have prepared and sent relevant international requests on providing legal assistance to 17 states. We understand that some will give answers and help in the investigation of a criminal case, while others won’t. As an example, unfortunately, I will cite Lithuania and Latvia, which denied us legal assistance in a criminal case of the genocide, arguing that this could affect their national security issues. In fact, we see that they do not want to help us in the investigation of a criminal case against humanity, mass murder of civilians and help us restore historical justice and show the scale of the tragedy of the Belarusian people,” said Valery Tolkachev.

According to him, Russia is actively helping in the study of the genocide of the Belarusian people, providing an opportunity for specialists to work with their archival documents. “We are working with the archives on a daily basis, with prosecutors studying them in a continuous method. Only those documents are withdrawn that have a direct information base, data that are relevant to the circumstances of the investigation. In general, working with archives is important, as this is one of the sources of the evidence base. I’d like to note that on behalf of the Head of State, the investigation team of the General Prosecutor’s Office visited Moscow. We worked with the State Archives of the Russian Federation. There is an interest in Russia in providing documents,” noted Mr. Tolkachev.

He stressed that during the investigation it was identified that the scale of the tragedy is much greater than was previously known.