Murder probe as Belarusian exile found hanged in park
A BELARUSIAN activist has been found hanged in a park near his home in Kyiv, Ukrainian police said as they opened a murder investigation.
Vitaly Shishov, 26, who headed an exiles group that helps compatriots flee repression, was reported missing on Monday after failing to return home from a run.
Police said their inquiry will pursue all leads including ‘murder disguised as suicide’.
Friends of Mr Shishov (pictured) believe he was targeted for protesting against the government of Alexan
der Lukashenko, which has clamped down on the pro-democracy opposition and begun a campaign to hunt down activists abroad. Mr
Shishov said he had felt under constant surveillance since he fled Belarus last year and warned about possible threats, including being kidnapped or killed.
‘Vitaly treated these warnings stoically and with humour,’ colleagues in the Belarusian House in Ukraine group said in a statement.
The United Nations said Mr Shishov’s death adds another level to ‘our worries about what is happening in Belarus’, and called for an investigation.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who visited No.10 yesterday, said: ‘It is worrying that those who flee Belarus still can’t be safe.’ Boris Johnson told her the UK is ‘on your side and committed to supporting human rights and civil society’ in her country.
Mr Shishov’s death is the latest incident to prompt international concern after Olympics sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya, 24, refused her team’s order this week to fly back to Minsk early. She has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland.