MINSK - As many as 138 people in Belarus are currently being prosecuted for mercenarism, Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) Chairman Valery Vakulchik said.
“We have 138 [people prosecuted for] mercenarism,” Vakulchik told journalists in Minsk on June 23.
Belarusian Interior Minister Igor Shunevich said in early March that about 140 Belarusians were involved in the fighting in Ukrainian territory. “We have a list of people who, according to our information, are involved in combat activities in this or that form and on this or that side of the conflict in the military conflict zone in Ukraine. The list contains about 140 people,” Shunevich said.
The Interior Ministry has met the investigators’ request on documenting these facts, and the investigation will assess them in legal terms, he said.
The Interior Ministry’s organized crime and corruption directorate reported later that 135 criminal cases were opened against Belarusians suspected of taking part in military activities in Ukrainian territory.
“We are keeping a criminal record of Belarusian militants who fought in Ukraine and are returning home now. All of this is being done to put people who could pose a military threat to the state under control. As many as 135 criminal cases have already been opened against such Belarusians,” organized crime and corruption directorate chief Nikolai Karpenkov said at the time in an interview published in the Zvyazda newspaper.
