Badly Beaten – VG

Ukrainian police have The investigation into the murders has begun After a political activist from a neighboring country was found dead last night.

Sources in the exiled Belarusian community in the Ukrainian capital told VG that the activist was reported missing yesterday.

– Yesterday, Vitaly’s friends searched for him all day, there was a message on social media to contribute, a Belarusian citizen living in exile in Kiev told VG.

He worked for many years as a journalist in his homeland, but had to flee due to mass arrests in his homeland this summer.

Vitaly led the Belarusian House of Ukraine (BDU) and helped people escape from the system. Last Saturday, they held a meeting at the Belarusian embassy to commemorate another Belarusian activist who was killed during the riots in Minsk.

VG knows the source name. He wants to remain anonymous for the sake of his family and his safety.

Read also: Prison Activist Meet the Press: – Appears as booty

in a interview With Radio Free Europe, the girlfriend rules out that Sjisjon may have committed suicide.

– He had no reason for this, we had joint plans for the future, Bozina Zuludz tells the channel.

Indicate secret agents

Vitaly Shishov was found hanged in a park in Vy, according to Ukrainian police. He was reported missing after a run on Monday, when the BDU group, which he leads, was unable to reach him via mobile phone.

The organization claims that the activist was killed by secret agents.

The human rights organization Vgasna wrote on the same platform that Sheshev, according to his friends, was persecuted by “strangers” while he was jogging earlier, NTB reports.

TV channel Interviewed at the moment An acquaintance of the activist who was present when the body was found. He says that the deceased’s face was severely bruised, which may indicate a murder.

– Tragedy

A spokeswoman for the Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, told VG that the opposition is closely following the issue.

– But we don’t know yet more than what was reported in the press. But we feel confident that the Ukrainian police will do everything they can to find out what happened. It’s a tragedy, but we don’t want to speculate on details we don’t know very well. That’s what we have to say at this point, says Anna Krasulina, Tikhanovskaya’s press secretary.

The regime in Belarus cracked down on dissent after mass protests erupted following last year’s elections. The opposition and the authorities in Western countries described the elections as tampering.

The regime responded by sending several thousand police and security personnel into the streets, where they attacked protesters. More than 35,000 have been arrested.

President Alexander Lukashenko has been in power in the former Soviet state of Belarus since 1994.

forced to deny

Many Belarusians fled the country, often to neighboring Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, to escape President Lukashenko’s oppressive regime.

– I ran from Belarus to Kiev to save my life and avoid prison. At the beginning of the summer, the Belarusian regime began detaining journalists and political activists, says a VG source in the Kiev exile community.

– We were many who had to flee. Russia is not safe, there is a risk of being sent back to Belarus and imprisoned. That’s why we chose Ukraine. Journalists fled to such cities as Lviv, Kiev and Odessa.

I know more than 50 journalists who have fled so far, but there may be more. I decided not to wait for them to arrest me, but to run away with my family.

In May, Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend were arrested in Minsk. When a plane on its way from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in the Belarusian capital.

Foreign Minister: – Tragic

The news that the Belarusian democratic activist Vital Syesjo was found hanged in Kiev is tragic. It is worrying that Sjysjou should have felt watched after leaving Belarus after participating in protests against the regime, Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide wrote for VG.

– It is important and necessary that the Ukrainian authorities immediately begin an investigation into the case, so that we can clarify what happened and who is behind it.

Norway will continue to follow closely the situation of the democratic movement in Belarus, and I look forward to meeting the leader of the democratic movement, Svyatlana Tsykhanuskaga, in Oslo next week.

– One of the topics we will discuss is that even Belarusians in exile cannot feel safe for Lukashenko’s regime.