Conscript Soldier Found Hanged In Slonim Garrison

The incident occurred in the military unit # 33933.

On September 6, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus confirmed that private Arlou A.V. committed suicide the day before in one of the military units of Slonim garrison, Radio Liberty informs.

Arlou A.V. was 20 years old, he had a little more than six months till the end of his military service. The Investigatory Committee instituted a check on the fact of the suicide, and the commission of the Ministry of Defense works in the military unit.

Previously, the Defense Ministry stated that "the cause of suicide is due to personal circumstances, not related to the passage of military service."

The site hronika.by on September 5 reported the suicide of a serviceman in the military unit # 33933 (Separate Guards Mechanized Brigade - Ed.) in Slonim with a reference to eyewitnesses. They claimed that the youngster closed and hanged himself in the room where the instruments were stored. The reasons were not called.

A similar incident happened in this military unit back in 2013: a 20-year-old soldier hanged himself. The version of the Investigatory Committee was suicide because of a soldier's row with his girlfriend, and the girl herself said that she did not believe in it, and the soldier's parents stated that they did not believe in this version. At the end of 2017, the journalists of the Slonimskaya Gazeta gave explanations to the police and had to undergo the inspection of the "observation commission" because of the publication about possible hazing in the unit.

The incident took place against the backdrop of the Korzhych case, during which numerous facts of hazing in various military units of Belarus were revealed. Herein, the Investigatory Committee reported that the body of the soldier was found "in a loop with tied legs and a T-shirt on his head," the investigation later ruled that it was suicide. Comrades-in-arms did not believe it.