Whistleblower Aleh Ałkajeŭ dies in Germany

September 20, BPN. Aleh Ałkajeŭ, former head of Detention Center No.1 in Minsk, has died in Germany aged 69, Naša Niva reported citing a friend of the deceased.

A forensic medical examination will establish the cause of death. Ałkajeŭ could have died because of a blood clot, according to the source.

After publicly accusing Belarusian authorities of kidnapping and possibly murdering Alaksandr Łukašenka’s opponents in 1999, Ałkajeŭ fled Belarus and settled down in Germany.

He managed to smuggle out detention center’s weapons records. These show that that the interior minister authorized the issue of the “death penalty” pistol on the days when opposition politicians disappeared, although officially no executions were recorded at the time.

Evidence uncovered by critics of the Belarusian government suggests that security officers used the gun to murder opposition politicians Yury Zacharanka and Viktar Hančar and businessman Anatol Krasoŭski in 1999.