The Belarusian authorities have said that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) will be granted access to the investigation into the death of Aleh Byabenin (Oleg Bebenin).
Index on Censorship’s Mike Harris was due to meet Charter 97‘s Aleh Byabenin in Minsk, Belarus last week. Instead he ended up attending his funeral. As Index reported on Saturday, Byabenin was found dead on Friday evening, apparently hanged.
Mike explained the situation in Belarus to BBC World Service’s Europe Today yesterday (6 September). Click here to listen (from 40 mins in).
Mike was also interviewed for Russian television after Aleh’s funeral, along with members of Charter 97 and the Belarus Free Theatre.
Index on Censorship is deeply concerned by the reported suicide of one of Belarus’s leading journalists and human rights activists, Aleh Byabenin. Byabenin was found dead in his country house on the outskirts of Minsk yesterday (Friday 3 September) at 5.30pm local time by a family friend. No suicide note was found.
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