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Belarus calls on Polish authorities to conduct impartial and comprehensive investigation into death of Andrzej Lepper

Minsk calls on the Polish authorities to conduct an impartial and comprehensive investigation into the death of politician Andrzej Lepper, said Andrey Savinykh, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, in a statement issued on Saturday.

The 57-year-old Lepper, chairman of the Self-Defense party (Samoobrona) who was briefly deputy prime minister, was found hanged in the party’s office in Warsaw on Friday afternoon.

“It was with deep sorrow that people in Belarus learned of the death of the bright politician, Samoobrona leader Andrzej Lepper,” Mr. Savinykh said. “The death of a prominent and popular politician shortly before parliamentary elections in Poland arouses our concern, especially considering the fact that this is not the first death of a member of the party’s leadership this year.”

“We recommend the Polish side to invite independent international experts, who would help eliminate any doubt about the impartiality of the investigation’s findings,” Mr. Savinykh said.

“Andrzej Lepper was known in Poland and beyond as an uncompromising defender of the interests of the common people, and that was why he was often subjected to pressure and undeserved persecution,” he noted.

Poland’s news agency PAP reported that Mr. Lepper had hanged himself, and that his body had been discovered by a family member. “Everything indicates that he killed himself,” said police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski.

Andrzej Lepper, a hog farmer-turned-firebrand populist, was deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture and rural development between May 2006 and September 2006, and again from October 2006 to July 2007, in the government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski. He was dismissed by Mr. Kaczynski over allegations that he had solicited bribes.

He was then also accused of soliciting sex from a woman who worked for his party. He was convicted of those charges last year.

In the last parliamentary elections, in 2007, the Self-Defense party did not reach a 5-percent threshold for entering the Sejm and largely disappeared from the political scene. Recent polls indicated the party had no chance for a comeback, putting its support at around one percent before the forthcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 9.

Mr. Lepper was an outspoken supporter of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his policies and therefore he was frequently asked for comments by the Belarusian leaders’ propagandists.