Фото: СК
Belarus’s Investigative Committee has completed its investigation into the murder of a 35-year-old Minsk resident. He was killed in the autumn of last year.
The victim’s mother initially reported him missing. According to her, she had asked her son to visit neighbours and ask them to stop making noise. He never returned.
While examining the area, investigators noticed a damaged surveillance camera and bloodstained items in a rubbish container.
The investigation ultimately led to two suspects, brothers aged 54 and 60. They were detained in a garage in the Valozhyn district where they had been hiding. The brothers confessed to the crime and showed investigators where they had concealed the body.
According to investigators, the brothers had been drinking alcohol at their residence. During the gathering, one of them went into the apartment building’s hallway, began shouting loudly and knocking on neighbours’ doors. A man came out in response to the noise, calmed him down, and later joined him for drinks at the accused men’s apartment. Soon afterwards, an argument broke out between one of the brothers and the 35-year-old guest.
During the dispute, the older brother allegedly took an extension-cord cable and strangled the neighbour before stabbing him several times in the neck and head. His brother then joined in the assault. The two men beat the victim, who died at the scene from his injuries.
The brothers then decided to conceal the crime. After retrieving a vehicle from their garage in the Valozhyn district, they loaded it with shovels, bags of cement and plastic sheeting, then drove to a forested area in Minsk Region where they dug a pit. Leaving the equipment there, they returned to the apartment. They cleaned up bloodstains, wrapped the victim’s body in a blanket and secured it with a tow rope. When there were fewer people outside, one of the brothers damaged the building’s surveillance camera. They then carried the body to the vehicle and drove it to the prepared burial site. In the forest, they placed the body in the pit, covered it with cement and soil, and later returned to the garage, where they burned the blanket and the knife in a metal barrel.
The defendants have been charged under Paragraphs 6 and 15, Part 2, Article 139 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (murder committed with exceptional cruelty by a group of persons). The criminal case has been transferred to the prosecutor’s office for referral to court. The accused remain in custody.