Russian TV channels” It could be political assassination (Video)

• 7.09.2010, 8:48

Today we are learning the truth about the events in Belarus from Russian mass media. Information about the death of Aleh Byabenin – uncensored.

The First Russian channel: Aleh dreamt of a new Belarus – just and very happy one

As informed by the First Channel of Russia, on September 6 people paid last respects to a well-known journalist Aleh Byabenin. Hundreds of people gathered for a civil funeral ceremony. The death of the chief of the largest oppositional website has evoked a wide response in the country. Family and friends do not believe the official version, the suicide.

Last farewell was said to Aleh by those together which whom he dreamt of a new Belarus, a just and very happy one.

“You see how many people have come. It is a grievous loss,” said the first leader of independent Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich.

Those who knew Aleh, do not believe in the official version, as there had been no motives for the suicide or a suicide note. He was cheerful, with two children whom he adored, and he had lots of plans. On the day of death he arranged meetings on that week.

“It is so hard to believe. It concerns the traces on his body, which have not been recorded and examined; the noose didn’t have a slipknot,” said the director of the Belarus Free Theatre Mikalai Khalezin.

“It could be a political assassination. Recently pressure on the opposition increased. Recently searches in the flats of our workers were held. They tried to break into the flat of Byabenin, but as it was later than 10 p.m., and he had a right not to let them in. He had not let them in,” said the journalist of charter97.org website Natalya Radzina.

People, with whom he had created Charter-97, say that Aleh was engaged in investigation of the activities of the so-called death squadrons and mysterious disappearances of several dozens of political opponents of Lukashenka. In the next presidential election he was to become the head of the campaign in support of the oppositional candidate Andrei Sannikov.

“Lukashenka’s regime is known by abductions of people. It is a part of our life,” said Andrei Sannikov, a coordinator of “European Belarus” civil campaign.

“In the run-up to the presidential elections the situation is changing to the worse by the minute. Demonstrational arrests, political prisoners, searches in the news office of Charter-97 when computers even of foreign journalists are seized, for no one to know what is going on in the country. It is very dangerous, to be a journalist in this country. Aleh’s death is a proof for that. It is more than suspicious, starting from the fact that even the date of his death was changed during investigation. The West is seriously concerned by the recent developments,” stated Michael Harris, Index on Censorship representative.

NTV: Colleagues do not believe in journalist’s suicide

“He was in his usual mood. Energetic, cheerful, he planned to go to the cinema with his friends in the evening. I talked to workers of law-enforcing agencies, who were there, in the summer cottage, talked to the expert who performed a postmortem examination. They had absolutely different versions. The time gap [between their versions] was more than 15 hours,” Zmitser Bandarenka, Charter-97 coordinator said.

In late 1990ies a graduate of the Belarusian State University Aleh Byabenin founded and became the editor of charter97.org website. This online edition became an oppositional one from its first days, it harshly criticized Lukashenka, paid much attention to a number of traceless disappearances of prominent Belarusian persons in the 2000ies: the former head of the Interior Ministry Zakharanka, a politician Hanchar, a journalist Zavadski. In late 1990ies Byabenin could disappear himself: he was taken to the forest and brutally beaten up.

“He had come through many trials over these years, starting from elementary intimidation and to taking him to a forest, searches and so on. It means that he was a person for whom all the events were familiar, who was an insider and had firsthand knowledge,” a journalist Svyatlana Kalinkina says.

Recently, colleagues from Charter-97 recall, their editor worried a lot about his staff. Searches were held in the news office of the website. Someone tried to burst into the door of Byabenin himself.

“I was beaten up. I was summoned for interrogations all that time endlessly. Aleh be distressed for me and my security while he stayed in the background. He always said: “Natasha, you must be in public, everything must be obvious, you know that people are pressurized”. And it has happened that he was the first to come to harm as he stayed in the background,” said charter97.org journalist Natalya Radzina.

Aleh Byabenin, who has come to the tragic end, was to become one of the key players in the campaign headquarters of the oppositional candidate Andrei Sannikov. The politician himself grieves the new loss, recalling other losses.

“Politicians, public leaders have disappeared in our country. Nothing has been detected. I mean disappearance of Zmitser Zavadski, the murder of Veranika Charkasava, Vasil Hrodnikau and others,” says Andrei Sannikov, the leader of “European Belarus” civil campaign.

http://www1.ntv.ru/swf/vp.swf?link=http://www.ntv.ru/vi204445/&id=204445&num=1

TV Channel Vesti: “Aleh Byabenin was not used to give up on his goals”

“He was intimidated, taken to the forest, threatened by execution,” film maker Yury Khashchavatski.

According to the official version, Byabenin committed suicide in his summer house. According to the witnesses who had found a dead journalist, the first things that stroke the eye was unnaturalness of the scene and the pose. The body was hanging at an angle to the floor, legs were propped to the floor, a toppled over stool was on the floor, there was a scratch on the hand.

“But the fact that the findings have been made so thoughtlessly, shows definitely it was an order,” said Stanislau Shushkevich, who was a chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus in 1991-1994.

Now journalists and the official investigators are trying to find out who stood to gain from the death of the founder of the oppositional Belarusian website charter97.org. it is known that a few days before his death Byabenin became an official aide of Andrei Sannikov, a candidate for presidency in the coming elections.

“Now the crackdown on the opposition would be increased under this pretext. It was written in the records that I am going to run as a candidate, and that Aleh agreed to become my assistant. And I counted upon him a lot,” said Andrei Sannikov, a presidential candidate, a deputy Foreign Minister in 1995-1996.

“It is of great advantage for the authorities now,” said Natalya Radzina, an editor of charter97.org website.

So far no one can exactly state the exact time of Byabenin death.

According to the friends of the journalist, the version of a suicide looks incredible. Byabenin had just returned from a holiday in Greece, where he was with his wife and two children, he was a cheerful and resilient man. And the most important thing, he was looking forward to the upcoming elections. They were his professional goal, and Aleh Byabenin was not used to give up on his goals.

http://www.vesti.ru/i/flvplayer.swf?vid=298277&autostart=false