Pavel Sheremet’s Body to Return Home Soon

The inves­ti­ga­tion already has six ver­sions of the mur­der, four of them have been pub­li­cized: pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ty, hos­til­i­ty in rela­tions or per­son­al motives, the Russ­ian trace (desta­bi­liza­tion of the sit­u­a­tion), an attempt­ed assas­si­na­tion of Ole­na Pry­tu­la.

On pages of social net­works, many of Pavel Sheremet’s friends and col­leagues remem­ber his vivac­i­ty and ardent jour­nal­is­tic work.

“Pavel had worked in Ukraine late­ly, but stayed a sym­bol­ic per­son­al­i­ty in Belarus jour­nal­ism. Has stayed. These min­utes, one does not think about sym­bols and pro­fes­sion, but about the per­son. Who is no longer here. Awful. Con­do­lences to rel­a­tives and friends,” wrote Andrei Bas­tunets, chair of BAJ, on his Face­book page.

“The mur­der of Pavel Sheremet is anoth­er assault on the pro­fes­sion of jour­nal­ists, anoth­er revenge to jour­nal­ists for truth, for true infor­ma­tion,” says Zhan­na Litv­ina, ex-chair of BAJ. “Pavel Sheremet has been BAJ mem­ber since 1997. I per­son­al­ly remem­ber him after the arrest, after pres­sure exert­ed by the Belaru­sian author­i­ties. I remem­ber his sin­cere treat­ment of the Zavad­skis fam­i­ly, his suf­fer­ings over the vio­lent abduc­tion of Dzmit­ry Zavad­s­ki. I also remem­ber well Pavel’s pro­grams on the Russ­ian TV – with what admi­ra­tion you sit near the screen and watch those bright, tal­ent­ed pro­grams. This mur­der is a ruth­less revenge for his tal­ent, for his con­vic­tions, for his truth. This is a ruth­less revenge to jour­nal­is­tic pro­fes­sion.”

It is expect­ed that the farewell cer­e­mo­ny will take place in Kyiv on Fri­day, July 22, and the body will be trans­ferred to Min­sk by plane. Then, on Sat­ur­day the memo­r­i­al ser­vice will take place in All Saints’ Church (ul. Kali­nouska­ha 121). The jour­nal­ist will be buried next to his father’s grave on North­ern Ceme­tery. How­ev­er, rel­a­tives say the events will depend on the inves­tiga­tive activ­i­ties of Ukraine author­i­ties and offi­cial pro­ce­dures, so the sched­ule might change.

Famous Jour­nal­ist Killed in Car Blast in Kyiv (Updates)

Guardian: “The world can be bet­ter: a trib­ute to jour­nal­ist Pavel Sheremet”

The BBC Russ­ian Ser­vice: «Белорусский след» и прерванный рассказ о любви Павла Шеремета

Pavel Sheremet, archive pho­tos (2004)