The founder of charter97.org website, Aleh Byabenin, died a year ago.

Aleh Byabenin was found hanged in his summer house outside Minsk on September 3, 2010. The law-enforcement agencies hurried to declare it was a suicide. However, the journalist’s death raises many questions. Forensic experts cannot even say the exact date of his death – September 2 or 3.

Aleh Byabenin did not leave a suicide note. Friends and colleagues of the journalist state that there were traces of violence on his body.

Representatives of democratic community say it was a “political killing”. Aleh was a member of the team of Lukashenka’s main opponent at the December 19 presidential elections - leader of European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Sannikov. Everyone remembers how confrontation with the regime ahead of the 2001 presidential elections ended for Yury Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar, Anatol Krasouski, Henadz Karpenka and Dzmitry Zavadski.

Andrei Sannikov’s team faced the most brutal crackdown. The presidential candidate was sentenced to five years in prison. His wife Iryna Khalip, who spent six weeks in a remand jail and four months under house arrest, was given 2 years of suspended sentence. Sannikov’s election manager Zmitser Bandarenka got 2 years’ sentence after a spinal surgery in prison. He may become a disabled person. The spokesman for the presidential candidate, Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, was sentenced to 4 years in a medium security penal colony. Activists of Sannikov’s team were given from 3 to 4 years of imprisonment.

The charter97.org website faced the strongest pressure from the authorities in 2010. Four criminal cases were opened against the site and its editor Natallia Radzina; the office and journalist’s flat survived five raids; 20 computers were seized. Radzina was arrested on December 19 and thrown into prison for a month and a half. Website’s journalists had to flee from the country and continue their work in Lithuania.

We will learn the truth about the death of our colleague after the change of power. A criminal case over Aleh Byabenin’s tragic death will be initiated and investigated by the best Belarusian criminalists.

Charter`97