OSCE experts to arrive in Belarus for journalist's murder inquiry

MINSK. October 25. KAZINFORM Two experts from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will arrive on Monday to Belarus for an independent inquiry into the death of Belarusian opposition journalist and human rights activist Oleg Bebenin; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

"Two expert criminalists from Norway and Sweden will arrive in our country on October 25," said Andrey Savinykh, a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

Bebenin, 36, was one of the leading figures of the human rights organization Charter97 and ran its website. His body was found in his summer house on the outskirts of Minsk in September. Police have said he hung himself. However, his family and colleagues have suggested foul play.

The journalist was abducted in 1997 by people in masks and threatened over his articles. In 1999, he was almost beaten to death by unknown assailants; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.

See www.en.rian.ru