Probe into vandal attack on Yama Holocaust memorial in Minsk suspended

A senior investigator of Minsk's Tsentralny district police department, Hanna Sobal, on March 16 suspended a four-month-long probe into the November 12, 2006 vandal attack on the Yama Holocaust memorial, Lyubow Murylyova of the Information and Public Relations Office of the Minsk city police department said in an interview with BelaPAN.

According to Ms. Murylyova, the probe was suspended because of the failure to identify those who should be subjected to criminal prosecution.

Vandals splashed white paint on bronze figures along the steps leading to the stele and white-painted a large Nazi swastika on the upright pillar.

They left leaflets signed by “Belaya Rus Aryan Resistance Front.” “The act signals the onset of an uncompromising struggle against enemies – traitors to the fatherland and liberal democracy advocates, against Judaism and Freemasonry in their various manifestations and against other henchmen of a new world order under the aegis of talmudists and the USA,” the leaflet read.

The police instituted criminal proceedings under the Criminal Code's Article 341 that penalizes the defacement of “structures” and damage to property.

Ms. Murylyova also said that there is no registered organization of this name on the territory of Belarus and any other information concerning it may not be disclosed because this would damage the investigation.

The building housing the Israeli Cultural and Information Center was also damaged in a vandal attack last year. The vandals daubed swastikas and wrote anti-Semitic graffiti across the front of the house.