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The pathologist who did the autopsy on Aleh Byabenin found that the journalist had been in a state of high alcohol intoxication, Tatsyana Kalinina, senior aide to the Minsk region prosecutor, told BelaPAN on Thursday.
According to her, investigators continue to believe that the journalist committed suicide. This is the main theory, but a number of new examinations have been ordered for the purpose of exploring all possible theories.
The 36-year-old Byabenin, one of the prominent figures of an opposition group called Khartyya-97 (Charter’97) and the founder and director of the news website charter97.org, was found hanged in his summer house in the village of Pyarhurava, Dzyarzhynsk district, at about 5 p.m. on September 3.
As Alyaksandr Danilchanka, spokesman for the Minsk regional police department, told BelaPAN the following day, Mr. Byabenin’s body was found “hanging in a self-made noose from the stairways leading to the second floor, with a stool knocked over on the floor.”
He is believed to have committed suicide and there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances, Mr. Danilchanka said.
According to him, Dzyarzhynsk police investigators who examined the house discovered two empty bottles of Belaruski Balsam, a strong herbal liqueur. No marks of violence were found on the body. No suicide note was found.
“Neighbors said they had not seen any people other than Byabenin in the house on that day,” Mr. Danilchanka said.
However, the journalist’s associates insist that he had no reason to kill himself. Charter’97 coordinator Dzmitry Bandarenka, who was one of the first to visit the scene on September 3, says that he saw suspicious bruises on the dead man’s left hand and back.
It is unclear when the death occurred. Police experts who examined the scene on Saturday estimated that Mr. Byabenin died at about 2 p.m. on September 3, whereas the death certificate later issued to the family dated the death to September 2.
Mr. Byabenin was born in the city of Kostroma, Russia, in 1974. He graduated from the journalism department of Belarusian State University. In the 1990s, he was deputy editor in chief of the independent newspaper Imya. In 1998, he founded charter97.org and became its director.
In April 1997, he was kidnapped by unknown assailants on the streets of Minsk and taken to a forest where he was released after being threatened against activities against the Belarusian president.
In September 1999, he was attacked and severely beaten on a Minsk street, presumably by KGB-hired thugs.