Germany responded to Belarus' request for a Nazi criminal

Belarus has received a response from Germany to its request for another Nazi criminal. This was announced by the head of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the republic, the head of the investigation team to investigate the criminal case of genocide Valery Tolkachev.

According to him, the request to Germany was sent as part of the investigation of the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War.

"Germany responded to Minsk's request for a Nazi criminal. This is one of the next criminal cases that we will send to the Supreme Court for consideration on the merits," he said.

Tolkachev noted that currently the documents received from Germany are in translation, and while investigative actions are underway, the name of the punisher is not disclosed. At the same time, he stressed that this is not the first criminal case against Nazi criminals that has been separated into a separate proceeding from a large-scale criminal case on genocide. According to him, the criminal case of the commander of the first company of the 118th punitive battalion, Joseph Vinnitsky, who participated in the burning of Khatyn, is being prepared for transfer to the court. According to the investigation, during the occupation of the BSSR, Vinnitsky personally and under his leadership killed more than 400 civilians.

In addition, Tolkachev noted that excavations are continuing in Belarus at places of mass destruction and burial of people during the occupation years.

"We analyze archival documents, materials of archival cases that were investigated in the late 40s- early 50s by state security agencies. When we declassify these documents, we establish approximate burial sites, look for witnesses, eyewitnesses, involve specialists of the Ministry of Defense," he said.

The representative of the Prosecutor General's Office clarified that in this case we are not talking about settlements that were destroyed along with people — according to the latest data, there are 12,868 such settlements on the Belarusian territory, but this is not a finite number. The head of the investigative group investigating the criminal case of the genocide of the Belarusian people also noted that during the war years at least three million civilians were killed in the territory of the BSSR.

The case of the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War was initiated in Belarus on the initiative of Alexander Lukashenko. Russia is actively helping the Belarusian side in the investigation.