Октябрьское РУВД Минска. Фото: Яндекс.Карты
The International Committee for the Investigation of Torture in Belarus has published a new public investigation into events at Minsk’s Kastrychnicki District Police Department in the first days after the 2020 presidential election.
The investigation is based on 52 in-depth interviews with former detainees, medical reports and photographic evidence. It is the first to provide a comprehensive picture of what happened between Aug. 7 and Aug. 13, and names those allegedly responsible for the crimes.
Human rights defenders concluded that the violence at the Kastrychnicki District Police Department was deliberate.
“The investigation presents evidence of detainees being beaten during intake, as well as the practice of forcing detainees to remain in painful positions for extended periods, including kneeling for many hours and being held face down against a concrete floor or wall, aimed at physically exhausting them and breaking their will.
We documented cases of psychological pressure and threats of execution, which created in detainees a sense of complete legal vulnerability,” the International Committee for the Investigation of Torture in Belarus said.
The investigation pays particular attention to the legal qualification of the actions of security forces.
The analysis of the facts provides grounds to conclude that what happened at the Kastrychnicki District Police Department was part of a deliberate and widespread attack on the civilian population, which allows these acts to be classified as crimes against humanity under international law.
Below are some testimonies from detainees included in the investigation:
“Hands behind your back, legs crossed — you are kneeling with your head to the floor. We stood like that for a very long time, I think at least an hour, because when they told me to get up, I could not, because my legs had gone numb and I could not feel them at all.”
“They beat us with batons, fists and kicks. Mostly they hit us on the back. I was hit in the head several times. Afterwards, when I got out, I went to the emergency hospital and was diagnosed with a closed head injury.”
“If they found tattoos on someone, they beat them on that spot. If someone had bracelets, white ones or something else, they beat them there too. Bracelet on the hand — they hit the hand.”
“Every second person had been beaten, and very badly. … There were people there who were all blue, red and bruised from baton beatings, with huge black eyes. … They hit people in the face without hesitation. Those who had embroidered shirts or something like that were all striped with bruises.”
“While we were lying face down on the floor, one of the people said he felt unwell, that he had heart problems and that someone should call an ambulance, but they just beat him to make him keep quiet.”
“They brought us reports in which each of us had two charges. ‘Hooliganism’ — allegedly shouting at the polling station, waving our arms, bothering voters, causing police officers to be called. We did not calm down, ‘resisted police officers’, tried to run away — that was the second charge. Two charges for everyone, all identical copies.”
“We were sitting in the office and I saw how that report was written. It was copied and pasted. And it was the same for everyone. We all had the same charges: 17.1 — petty hooliganism and 23.4 — disobeying an officer in the line of duty.”
“Then they asked some more questions and one person, a ‘beast’ or whatever you call him, came up and stood on me with both feet and walked on me, crushing me with his feet to make it hurt more.”
“They bring you in and put you in front of that camera, or rather throw you on the floor. Again they shout: ‘Why did you fall? Are you drunk?’. Then somehow they lift you up. On camera you say your full name, explain what happened and under what circumstances you were detained.”