Aleh Bebenin Would Have Celebrated His 43 Years

Today is the birthday of Aleh Bebenin, founder of Charter.org.

Journalist was found hanged in his house near Minsk on3 September 2010. Law enforcement agencies rushed to say that he committed suicide. However, his death is questionable.

Forensic psychiatrists cannot even agree upon the date of his death. There was no suicide note. Friends and colleagues who were at the scene claim that there were signs of foul play. The prosecutor's office ceased "examination" after the death of Aleh Bebenin a few months after its initiation, despite demands of international organizations and human rights defenders to conduct a proper investigation.

Representatives of democratic community declared a "policy-based murder". The death of Aleh Bebenin occurred on the eve of the presidential campaign of 2010, which ended in brutal dispersal of the Square in Minsk. The journalist was a member of the team of one of the main rivals of Lukashenka, leader of the European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Sannikov. Everyone remembers what was the end of some opponents of the regime on the eve of the presidential elections in 2001. Yury Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar, Anatol Krasouski, Zmitser Zavadski were kidnapped and killed.