Murder Probe Opened After Belarus Activist Found Hanged

Fellow exiles say they had been warned that Vitaly Shishov was being watched
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 3, 2021 2:53 PM CDT
Belarusian Activist Found Dead in Ukraine Park
This photo provided by Belarusian Human Rights Center "Viasna," shows Vitaly Shishov, leader of the Kyiv-based Belarusian House in Ukraine.   (Human Rights Center Viasna via AP)

A Belarusian activist who fled the country for Ukraine after taking part in antigovernment rallies has been found hanged in a park—and police have opened a murder investigation. Police say they are investigating whether Vitaly Shishov was killed and his death framed as a suicide, the BBC reports. The 26-year-old's body was found in a Kyiv park Tuesday, the day after he failed to return from a morning jog and his partner reported him missing. Shishov was head of the Belarusian House in Ukraine group, which helps exiles find jobs and accommodations. "Vitaly was under surveillance," the group said in a statement, per CNN. "Also we were repeatedly warned by local sources and by our own people in Belarus about all kinds of provocations up to kidnapping and liquidation."

Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s national police chief, told reporters that Shishov had been found with light injuries to his nose, knee, and chest, and "experts said this is all characteristic of a one-time fall," the New York Times reports. Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, said she would wait for the results of the investigation before describing the death as a crime, but she is "devastated" by Shishov's death and worries that "those who flee Belarus still can't be safe." His body was found the day after Belarusian Olympian Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was granted a visa by Poland because she was afraid to return to her homeland. (She says she doesn't think she can ever go back.)

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