Journalist Veranika Charkasava Murdered Year Ago In Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

On October 20, 2004 shocking news made Minsk shudder. A well-known journalist, a correspondent of independent newspaper “Solidarnost” Veranika Charkasava (Cherkasova) was brutally murdered in her own apartment. The investigation of this case lasts for a year. Family of the deceased is experiencing one stunning blow after another…

The criminals have not been found. Professionalism of our policemen has failed again. And again investigators are unproductive in the high-profile case.

The body of Veranika Charkasava was found by her son and step-father. Veranika’s colleagues were alarmed when punctual Veranika had not come to the editorial office in the morning, and was not answering the phone. Worried journalists contacted her family. When her son and stepfather came to the apartment, Veranika was dead…

In the first days of investigation investigators inclined to an opinion that Veranika’s murder was caused by everyday reasons. At the same time the version of the murder’s connection to with her professional activities was voiced. Charkasava wrote about religious sects at the territory of Belarus. However, her colleagues specified that she wrote about sects long ago. Recently she wrote bright articles about interesting people. At the same time, journalists wanted to attract attention of the investigators to the fact that in spring of the year 2004 the “Solidarity” newspaper published a series of articles headlined “The KGB is still watching you”. Earlier the journalist was writing about contracts of Iraqi firms connected with Infobank (which is called Trustbank now).

However, it appears that the investigators were not leaning towards the view that the version of professional reasons for her murder, proposed by her colleagues, should be considered.