Former Belarusian operative under Lukashenko goes on Swiss trial over enforced disappearances

GENEVA (AP) — A former member of Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko’s special security forces is going on trial in Switzerland over the enforced disappearances of political opponents in the late 1990s. The case is being seen as a landmark of international justice. Yuri Harauski, a former member of a military unit known as SOBR, exited a tinted-window van wearing a hood as he entered the courthouse in the northern city of St. Gallen. Activists say the two-day trial marks a pivotal moment in international justice that could trigger prosecutions abroad of other Belarusian officials — including potentially Lukashenko.