BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Belarus halts probe into reporter's death

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINSK, Belarus -- Authorities have halted an investigation into the stabbing death of an opposition journalist, a top prosecutor said Wednesday.

Veronika Cherkasova, 44, who had worked for independent media outlets for the past 15 years, was killed in her home in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in October.

Sergei Ivanov, a top prosecutor in charge of the investigation, told The Associated Press that he had decided to suspend the inquiry "owing to the absence of individuals who can be brought to justice."

The official added that the probe could resume at a later date if the circumstances changed.

She wrote most recently for the newspaper Solidarnost, which she joined in May 2003.

The newspaper's editor Alexander Starikevich, said he believed the reporter was killed for reasons linked to her work as a journalist, pointing out that she was investigating alleged arms sales by Belarus to Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power.

Meanwhile, the international watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that Solidarnost would no longer be available on the news stands as a result of a decision by the state company that has a monopoly on distribution not to renew a contract with the newspaper.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has made himself an outcast in the West by ruling his nation of 10 million with an iron hand, relentlessly stifling dissent and critical media outlets.

Source:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Belarus_Journalist_Killed.html