A Belarusian activist who ran a gaggle in Ukraine serving to Belarusians fleeing persecution was discovered useless within the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, native police stated Tuesday.
Vitaly Shishov, chief of the Kyiv-based Belarusian House in Ukraine, was discovered hanged in one of many metropolis’s parks not removed from his house, police stated in a press release.
A homicide probe has been launched, with police investigating that the killing might have been made to appear to be suicide, amongst different leads, the assertion learn.
The Belarusian House in Ukraine reported Monday that Shishov had gone lacking throughout a morning run. The Belarusian human rights centre Viasna cited Shishov’s associates as saying that he has just lately been adopted by strangers throughout his runs.
The Belarusian House in Ukraine helps Belarusians fleeing persecution with their authorized standing in Ukraine, lodging and employment.
In Belarus in current weeks, authorities have ramped up the strain towards non-governmental organizations and impartial media, conducting greater than 200 raids of places of work and residences of activists and journalists in July alone, and detaining dozens of individuals.
Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to proceed what he known as a “mopping-up operation” towards civil society activists whom he has denounced as “bandits and foreign agents”.
Lukashenko confronted months of protests triggered by his being awarded a sixth time period in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West noticed as rigged. He responded to demonstrations with an enormous crackdown that noticed greater than 35,000 folks arrested and 1000’s overwhelmed by police.
The Belarusian House in Ukraine stated in a press release Tuesday that Shishov was compelled to maneuver to Ukraine within the fall of 2020 when anti-government protests and crackdown on demonstrators in Belarus had been in full swing.
In Ukraine, he was beneath surveillance, and “both local sources and our people in Belarus” have alerted the group to the potential of “various provocations, including kidnapping and liquidation”.
“There is no doubt that this was a planned operation by security operatives to liquidate a Belarusian, dangerous for the regime. We will continue to fight for the truth about Vitaly’s death,” the group stated.
Yury Shchuchko from the Belarusian House in Ukraine instructed The Associated Press that Shishov was discovered with marks of beating on his face. “Nothing was stolen, he was in regular clothes people put on to work out, and he only had his phone with him,” Shchuchko stated.
He additionally stated that Shishov has beforehand seen surveillance throughout his runs and that strangers would method him and attempt to begin a dialog.
“We have been warned to be more careful because a network of Belarus KGB agents is operating here and everything is possible,” Shchuchko stated.
“Vitaly asked me to take care of his loved ones, he had a weird feeling.”