By Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
December 31, 2008
THE son of a leading German politician was found dead in his Edinburgh flat on Christmas Eve.
Police were called to a flat on Windmill Place at around 1.05pm on December 24 following the discovery of Stephan Bisky's body.
Mr Bisky, aged 23, was the son of German Left Party co-chairman Lothar Bisky.
Police said there were no suspicious circumstances and a report was being sent to the procurator fiscal.
Friends said he suffered from seizures but it is unclear at this stage if this is linked to his death.
Mr Bisky moved to Scotland to study for a PhD in neuro-informatics at Edinburgh University.
It is not clear how long he had been dead when his body was found and the results of a post-mortem examination have not yet been released.
Last night, neighbours at the Berlin-born student's flat, where he lived alone, were shocked to hear of his death.
One neighbour spoke of how Mr Bisky was always seen wearing earphones as he came and went from the flat.
Jilly Armitage, 30, said: "We're all wondering how long he was in there because the police asked us on Christmas Eve and didn't seem to know themselves.
"He stayed on his own and was a very friendly, if quiet, chap.
"He seemed to love dance and house music - you would hear it coming from upstairs and he always had his headphones on.
"It must be awful for his family if they were expecting him home for Christmas. It is very, very sad."
Mr Bisky was previously educated at Heinrich Schliemann Oberschule, a high school in Berlin, and Otago University in New Zealand, where he received a masters in neuroscience.
In Edinburgh he was a member of Edinburgh University's institute for adaptive and neural computation - which studies brain processes and artificial learning systems.
His father Lothar, 67, has been in German politics for more than two decades and currently leads the Left Party, a minority party which holds three seats in the German Parliament, alongside Oskar Lafontaine.
A former rector of the University of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg, he is also editor of the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland.
He has two other sons. His eldest son Jens is a journalist and writer, while his middle son Norbert is a respected painter who has exhibited throughout Germany and in New York.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: "There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, and a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal."
All other enquiries were being referred to the German Embassy in London, which is presently closed for the New Year holidays.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it would not be commenting on the death.
Mr Bisky is the second Edinburgh University international student to have died this month.
On December 14, American student Cody Lavender died after falling from a window at the University's Pollock Halls of residence, less than a mile from where Mr Bisky's body was found ten days later.
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