Alexander Taraikovsky

Alexander Taraikovsky (26 March 1986 – 10 August 2020) was a participant in protests against the false numbers of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. He was shot dead point-blank (from a very close range) by special forces officers on August 10, 2020, in Minsk. The government-run media tried to present it as something that happened through his own carelessness (failure to take the care that a cautious person usually takes).

He was shot by the police on the evening of August 10, 2020, near Pushkinskaya metro station in Minsk. 

He was buried at Western cemetery in Minsk on August 15, 2020.У Менску разьвіталіся з загінулым падчас пратэстаў Аляксандрам Тарайкоўскім, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 15-08-2020 The death of Taraikovsky caused more protests.

On December 21, 2020, the representative of the public initiative "Belarusian People's Tribunal" Igor Makar published the materials of the preliminary investigation. They claimed that Aleksandr Taraikovsky was deliberately and cynically killed by an employee of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit "Almaz" Korovin Nikita Yuryevich ( born in 1993), with the complicity of other unidentified employees of this special forces unit.

On February 2, 2021, TUT.BY got the results of the audio test of the recording made by BYPOL. Nikolai Karpenkov the chief of GUBOPiK (a special police unit in Belarus) is heard to say that he was shot by the police. The expert test made it clear that the Nikolai Karpenkov's voice is on the record and there are no signs of changes made to it.

 Reaction 
On September 17, 2020, European Parliament spoke on the situation in Belarus. It printed a decision, supported by many people in the parliament, calling for an "independent and effective investigation" into the death of Alexander Taraikovsky related to the protests.

On November 19, 2020, Jim Gilmore, United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, spoke on a three-month end of the investigation into the death of Alexander Taraikovsky. He said that it is another sign of “the impunity with which Belarusian security forces pursue their violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.”

On November 26, 2020, European Parliament spoke on the situation in Belarus. // in time Ukraine. 26 ноября 2020.Усиление санкций, отмена ЧМ по хоккею и «внутренний терроризм». Евродепутаты эмоционально обсудили ситуацию в Беларуси  // TUT.BY, 26.11.2020  It printed a decision calling for a "prompt, thorough, impartial and independent investigation into the death of Alexander Taraikovsky."

 References 

Category:1986 births
Category:2020 deaths
Category:Belarusian activists
Category:Deaths by firearm
Category:People from Minsk
Category:Victims during protests in Belarus in 2020