Procurator's Office Launch No Proceedings to Investigate Death of Narodnaia Volia journalist Vasil Hrodnikau

21.10.2005.

Said Dzmitry Kirylchyk, investigator of Minsk District Procurator's Office, to a Radio Liberty correspondent: "The evidence given by witnesses and the first results of the examinations show there are no reasons to launch criminal proceedings. We will ask for the examination to continue for another two or three weeks, and then we'll take a final decision", said Dzmitry Kirylchyk.
Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders called on the Belarusian authorities to investigate all aspects of Vasil Hrodnikau's death. A special statement made by the organizations notes that Vasil Hrodnikau is not the first Belarusian journalist to die a strange death. The statement mentions the murder of Veranika Charkasava, a Salidarnasts journalist, and the disappearance of ORT cameraman Zmitsier Zavadzki in 2000. So far these crimes have not been solved, remind Reporters without Borders.
"We are concerned over the pressure against the journalists and the media in Belarus in the context of the forthcoming presidential elections in 2006", says the statement of the Reporters without Borders regarding the death of Vasil Hrodnikau.

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