Strange death of Hrodna professor's father

Investigators initiated a criminal case over a car accident that killed 86-year-old father of professor Ales Astrouski from Hrodna.

“A criminal case over a road traffic accident that caused deadly injuries to a resident of Hrodna, born in 1927, was initiated over part 2 of article 317 (vehicular homicide),” Interfax West news agency learnt on Monday from the Investigation Committee's department of the Hrodna region.

“A resident of Hrodna, born in 1971, is a suspect in the criminal case,” the Investigation Committee says.

The committee reports that according to preliminary information, the accident took place within the territory of a garage cooperative. “An old man was near a garage, when he was hit by a car. The driver took the man to hospital, where he died of injuries,” the committee informs.

The investigation is under way. Investigators are figuring out details of the accident.

The website udf.by was informed about another version of the event. The professor's father was killed in his own garage on March 25.

The old man had three fractured ribs, a broken nose and the torn pleura. The cruelly beaten man died at hospital.

The murder took place in the afternoon, when the man went to his garage to take beetroot that he kept there. Ales Astrouski tried to talk to owners of neighbouring garages, but they fear and don't want to speak. There are witnesses, but they are afraid of talking.

Investigators insist it was an ordinary accident. There are no signs of robbery. The money (80,000 rubles) and items in the garage were left untouched. But who could have problems with the old man in his 80s?

Professor Ales Astrouski works at the faculty of medical biology and genetics at Hrodna Medical University. Known for his pro-democracy views, he participated in opposition rallies several times.