KIEV: A Belarusian activist living in exile in Ukraine was found hanged in a park near his home in Kiev early on Tuesday, and Ukrainian police launched a murder investigation.

Vitaly Shishov, who led a Kiev-based organisation that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution, had been reported missing by his partner on Monday after failing to return home from a run.

Police said they were considering the possibility of suicide or of a murder staged to appear as suicide. Shishov had been found with abrasions on his nose and knee but it was too early to determine whether he had been attacked, Ukraine’s national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, told a briefing.

Shishov, 26, had felt under constant surveillance since he left Belarus last year after taking part in anti-government protests, his colleagues said. He had been warned about possible threats, including being kidnapped or killed.

Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have become havens for Belarusians during a security crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko following a disputed election last year. Tens of thousands of people have been detained and leading opposition figures are either in jail or living abroad.

“It is worrying that those who flee Belarus still can’t be safe,” exiled opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Twitter ahead of a meeting in London with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. She said the death could be a crime.

Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, she said a non-violent transition to democracy from Lukashenko’s “hell” was possible in the former Soviet republic. “When we put enough pressure on the regime there will be no other way out.” Shishov’s death was reported by the Belarus official news agency Belta, but the Minsk authorities did not otherwise comment. Lukashenko’s spokesperson could not be reached.

In May a dissident journalist, Roman Protasevich, was detained by Belarusian security forces after his flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk. This week, a Belarusian athlete took refuge in Poland’s embassy in Tokyo after refusing her team’s orders to fly home from the Olympics.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021