Dzmitry Zavadski

"The writer claimed that nine suspects had been arrested, seven of whom were either current or former officers of the Presidential Security Service, and that the suspects had confessed to killing Zavadsky and had named the place where his body was buried. According to the e-mail, the investigators had also found a shovel stained with Zavadsky's blood. Additionally, the e-mail claimed that President Lukashenko refused to allow investigators to exhume the body, and that the case was later transferred from the Prosecutor's Office to the Interior Ministry to sabotage the investigation." —report from Committee to Protect Journalists

Belarusian officials have twice re-opened the investigation into Zavadsky's disappearance—in 2003 and 2005—but no further details have been released about his whereabouts.

In 2007, the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) denied Belarus a seat on after heavy international criticism of the country's poor human rights and press freedom record, including the disappearances of the four men and the 2005 murder of Veronika Cherkasova.

In September 2004, the European Union and the United States issued travel bans for five Belarusian officials suspected in being involved in the kidnapping of Zavadsky: Interior Affairs Minister Vladimir Naumov, Prosecutor General Viktor Sheiman, Minister for Sports and Tourism Yuri Sivakov, and Colonel Dmitry Pavlichenko from the Belarus Interior Ministry. Naumov had been tasked with leading the investigation despite suspicions he was directly involved. Greece denied Sivakov a visa to prevent him from attending the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

In 2004, his wife, Svetlana Zavadskaya, and Irina Krasovskaya, the wife of Anatoly Krasovsky, co-founded the We Remember Foundation, dedicated to bringing justice to the disappeared and exposing human rights violations in Belarus.

In December 2003, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe alleged that top government officials were involved in the disappearances and subsequent cover-ups. In 2004, the assembly filed a resolution calling for Belarus to initiate a proper criminal investigation into the disappearances, and stated that until "significant process" was made in the cases, it would not reconsider its 1997 suspension of Belarus as a guest member of the Council.

On 14 March 2002, Minsk Regional Court convicted four men of five murders, plus the kidnapping of Dmitry Zavadsky. Two of the men, Valery Ignatovich and Maxim Malik, were former members of the elite Belarusian police unit Almaz. Despite the conviction, Zavadsky's body was never recovered and the circumstances of his disappearance and ultimate fate were not explained.

Belarus came under international criticism and human rights monitors regarded the behind-closed-doors trial and convictions as flawed. Journalists were banned from observing the proceedings except for the sentencing. In September 2002, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated that it was “seriously concerned about the lack of progress” and established an investigative sub-committee to probe into the multiple “disappearances.”

On 7 July 2000, Zavadsky drove to the Minsk National Airport to meet Sheremet. Witnesses saw Zavadsky in the airport and his car was later found in the parking lot. Zavadsky has not been seen since.

On 20 November 2000, independent (non-state) Belarusian media received an anonymous email from a person who identified himself as an officer of the Belarus State Security Committee working on the Zavadsky investigation:

From October 1999 to May 2000, Zavadsky and Sheremet were in Chechnya filming Chechen Diary, a four-part documentary series for ORT.

In addition to Zavadsky, Belarusian authorities failed to determine the fates of leading opposition figures Jury Zacharanka and Viktar Hanchar, and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky, who also vanished in 1999 and 2000.

On 28 January 1998 the court found Sheremet and Zavadsky guilty on all charges. Sheremet and Zavadsky were sentenced to 36 months in prison, but their sentences were suspended.

In 1997, Zavadsky and ORT reporter Pavel Sheremet were arrested and imprisoned after filming a report about security vulnerability on the Belarus–Lithuania border. Zavadsky filmed the report with Sheremet (along with his drivers) crossing illegally from Belarus to Lithuania and back again, to demonstrate the ease with which smugglers could cross the border. They were charged with Article 17 of the Criminal Code (conspiracy to commit a crime) and Article 80 (intentional violation of the state border), which carried a maximum five-year prison sentence.

The trial began on 17 December 1997 in Ashmyany, 55 kilometres (34 mi) from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. The selection of the location was highly publicized in both Belarus and Russia. Ashmyany, as a border city, required special permission to access, which complicated the situation for journalists wishing to cover the case. Additionally the courtroom was too small to accommodate all the interested parties, but the request to transfer the trial to a larger location was denied.

Dmitry Alexandrovich Zavadsky (Russian: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович Зава́дский ) or Dzmitry Alyaksandravich Zavadski (Belarusian: Дзмітрый Аляксандравіч Завадскі ; 28 August 1972 – declared dead 28 November 2003) was a Belarusian journalist who disappeared and was presumably murdered in 2000. Zavadsky worked as journalist and cameraman for Russian Public Television Channel One (ORT). From 1994 to 1997, he was the personal cameraman of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.