His Excellency Alexander Lukashenko
President of Belarus
C/o HE Ambassador to UK

7 February, 2005

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the way the investigation into the murder of journalist Veronika Cherkasova is being conducted.

Ms Cherkasova, a journalist with the newspaper Solidarnost, was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Minsk on 20 October 2004. The authorities have reportedly identified Ms Cherkasova’s 15-year-old son, Anton Filimonov, and her chronically ill stepfather, Vladimir Meleshko, as their main suspects in the murder. Even though police have no evidence to indict the pair, prosecutors have refused to lift their status as suspects and both have had to endure months of harassment and intense and intimidating interrogation. As a result, the son has been hospitalised with severe depression. We understand that Ms Cherkasova’s family now fears that evidence may be falsified to implicate family members in her murder.

Meanwhile, an independent investigation has concluded that Ms Cherkasova’s murder was a professional assassination. Other recent evidence suggests that shortly before her murder Ms Cherkasova was investigating the alleged sale of arms by Belarus to Iraq.

We respectfully call on you to ensure that all harassment of Ms Cherkasova’s family is immediately halted. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that the findings of the independent investigation are properly taken into account and that the official inquiry is carried out independently and impartially so that those responsible for Ms Cherkasova’s murder are swiftly brought to justice.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
Acting President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

cc :
His Excellency Alexander Lukashenko
President of the Republic of Belarus

His Honour Piotr Petrovich Miklashevich
Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus

Vladimir Vladimirovich Naumov
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

Mr Kofi Annan
Secretary-General, United Nations

Mr Koichiro Matsuura
Director-General, UNESCO