Teenager commits suicide in Minsk after facing rioting charges

Dzmitry Stakhouski, a 17-year-old targeted in a criminal investigation into "mass riots" of August 9-11, 2020 (Part 2 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code), committed suicide in the evening of May 25 by jumping off a 16-storey building in Minsk. Before killing himself, the teenager posted a suicide note on his VKontakte account, blaming the authorities for his death.

“The Investigative Committee is to blame for that,” the message read.

It is known that Dzmitry was an orphan and lived in a dormitory. It were the employees of the dormitory who pointed to the guy as a participant in the post-election protests, after which he faced criminal charges and was interrogated the same day he died, May 25.

“If they did not continue to pressure me mentally, I think I would not have dared do such a terrible act as suicide. But my strength was running out,” Stakhouski wrote in his last post.