The man’s body was found on Saturday afternoon in the forest near the village of Istok (Hajnówka poviat), police said. His identity is not yet known, the police are conducting activities under the supervision of the prosecutor.
Elżbieta Zaborowska from the press team of the Podlasie police announced that after 14 officers received a report that a man’s body was found in the forest near the village of Istok. Istok is a village in the Dubicze Cerkiewne commune, on the outskirts of the Białowieża Forest.
“The policemen, under the supervision of the prosecutor, conduct procedural activities, including identification. At the moment, the identity of the man is unknown” – she added.
Police have not yet released a description of the location or the circumstances in which the body was found. The investigation into the circumstances of this person’s death will be conducted by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Hajnówka. A few days ago, she initiated such proceedings against a man, whose body was found on Tuesday evening in a marshy area in the Białowieża Forest, a few kilometers from Kosy Most and Janowo. The deceased was about 30-40 years old, there were no identity documents with him.
Another corpse at the border with Belarus. The prosecutor’s office will handle the case
After the Prosecutor’s Office in Hajnów initially collects evidence, including opinions in the field of forensic medicine, the files of such cases are transferred to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Suwałki. This is because all individual proceedings in which the circumstances of the death of people whose bodies were found near the border with Belarus in Podlasie are determined.
When the migration crisis on this border began, in the fall of 2021, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok decided that cases regarding the deaths of migrants would be combined and transferred to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Suwałki.
Two main investigations are currently being conducted there, each case being a separate thread. The first investigation investigates the circumstances of the deaths of people whose bodies were found near the eastern border from autumn 2021 – when this area was still under a state of emergency – until the end of 2022. In the second – cases recorded since the beginning of 2023.
As the spokesman for the Suwałki prosecutor’s office, Wojciech Piktel, told PAP a few days ago, investigators are currently investigating the circumstances of the death of eight people whose bodies or remains were found near the border with Belarus in this second investigation.
Main photo source: Twitter/podlaskaPolicja