Several months ago the journalist Veranika Charkasava was violently murdered at home. She was stabbed with knife many times. The investigation still treats her son and stepfather as the main suspects, despite of the absence of evidence, and is eager to conduct psychiatric expertise of the journalist´s son Anton Filimonaw.(15-FEB-05)
Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta newspaper published the article “Fear as Sufficient Motive or Who Made Short Work of Veronika Cherkassova?” by Siarhey Satsuk. The author of the article states that the real reasons for the murder of the journalist who worked in Salidarnasts weekly before the murder can lie in the political field.
Siarhey Satsuk says they invited a criminalist, who stated with a great degree of assurance that the massacre in the journalist’s flat was staged. A witness from the neighboring flat heard how the murder took place, but the official investigation paid no attention to her testimony. The main accused of the official investigation is the 14-year-old Anton only because he was freed from the lessons of physical training, was going to the market approximately at the time of the murder. According to BDG the murderer took none of Veranika’s valuables and left $1 350 that belonged to the family in the flat, which excludes the version of robbery. To suspect the son is beyond criticism.
The only thread left is the professional activity. According to S. Satsuk, Veranika had contacts with the worker of “Infobank” who dealt with the financial side of Iraq contracts. It is not known whether the journalist planned to give publicity to information about arms trade, but her contacts with the “Infobank” worker could frighten somebody. “It could be somebody more important than bank workers”, — sums up Siarhey Satsuk.
On 2 February Anton’s grandmother Dyiana Charkasava managed to get the audience with the vice-prosecutor Mikalay Staravoytaw. She wanted to convince them not to take Anton Filimonaw to the sould asylum for the stationary expertise that would last for about a month. The prosecutors promised her only to “think it over” and also proposed her to “calm down journalists” and “not to create any obstacles for the expertise”.
According to Dyiana Charkasava, the main pretension of the prosecutors is that Anton wasn’t sincere with them. They don’t call him a murderer. The ruling to direct him for stationary expertise was signed by the major investigator of Minsk City Prosecutor’s Office Uladzimir Chumachenka and sanctioned by the first vice-prosecutor Mikalay Staravoytaw. The necessity of the expertise is explained with the fact that after the murder of his murder A. Fimimonaw was registered at Minsk child and teenager psycho-neurological clinic and in the end of November was taken to Minsk National Psychiatric Clinic for stationary treatment. The State service of medical court expertise which is subordinated to prosecutor’s office was empowered to conduct the expertise and find out whether A. Filimonaw was psychically ill “when he committed the crime”.
The vice-head of Belarusian Association of Journalists, lawyer Andrey Bastunets commented:
— The formulation of the questions which experts are to find answers to is standard. However, it is quite strange why the prosecutor’s office tries to find about the psychic state of a person before proving relation to the crime.
When Anton’s father, (who divorced his mother long ago, has married again and lives in Moscow) found about this situation, he took his son to Moscow. Now Belarusian Prosecutor’s Office can apply to the Russian side with the demand to extradite A. Filimonaw. However, according to the convention about legal support that was signed by the Russian Federation and Belarus, the expertise can be held in Moscow.
