31 July 2008
Yury Padabed retires as chief of Minsk riot police
Yury Padabed has resigned as commander of the Special Task Police Regiment, a Minsk-based riot police unit notorious for its role in violent dispersals of opposition demonstrations.
Colonel Padabed, who had served in the position for nine years, went into retirement for health reasons and currently stays in the interior ministry’s hospital in Minsk, a source at the Minsk city police department told BelaPAN.
Mr. Padabed is among 41 people on the European Union's list of Belarusian officials subject to a visa ban and an assets freeze in connection with their alleged involvement in a crackdown on civil society and opposition activists in the country. He and Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, were added to the list a few weeks after parliamentary elections and a constitutional referendum in November 2004.
Yury Karavayew, who formerly served as chief of a police unit in Homyel, has been appointed to succeed Mr. Padabed as commander of the Special Task Police Regiment.
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