Real hell in Belarus detention centers: people lie in bloodbaths, scary conversations are heard from outside borders

It is true that in Belarus, some people were released from militia units and detention centers on Friday after arrests by law enforcement officers brutally suppressed opposition protests over the disputed presidential election results. Many of those released reported torrential torture and beatings.

The system overheated and became unmanageable

“Where all these people are being detained is a good question. We ourselves do not know exactly where they are being transported. The Belarusian Interior Ministry system has proven incapable of handling so many detainees,” said Valentin Stefanovich of the human rights organization Vesna. .

During the four days of the protests, which began on August 9, several thousand people were detained in Belarus. Most in Minsk. V. Stefanovičius “Meduzai” claims that even before the vote, the Minsk isolators were released, supposedly due to all the anger: due to administrative violations, the prisoners were simply released, others were transported to the county. Valdis Fugash, a representative of another human rights organization operating in Belarus, provides similar data to Meduzai. However, the temporary detention facilities are overcrowded.

“In the isolated area of ​​Okrestino Street, as far as we know from the stories of people who have already been released, 30, 40, 50 or even 60 people are in cells of 4 to 8 people,” says V. Fugašas. When protests resumed on August 10, the detainees began to be transported to the city of Žodzina, an hour from Minsk. But there are no more places there either, so the grain goes to the local prison.

Even the closest people cannot find out where a particular detainee is; officially, the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior does not provide such information.

“God forbid, if one of your loved ones, friends, colleagues is missing, it will be incredibly difficult to find. Most still do not know anything about those who disappeared on August 9. Imagine, for four days. People go to the regional boards of the Ministry of the Interior and ask questions. Some write statements about missing persons. Sometimes (to those statements) he reacts – he replies that the person is in solitary confinement or in Žodzina. But these cases are very rare, “says V. Fugašas.

“There are no prisons. You will not plant all of Belarus.”

Most of those arrested during the protests in Minsk have so far not been found. Meduza spoke to the families of detainees on guard duty in isolation rooms during the day.

Vesna and Human Constanta very often receive information about detainees of missing relatives and volunteers. For example, there is the group Telegram, where people search for their loved ones and share lists of detainees. But all these testimonies are fragmented and human rights defenders do not have access to the databases of the Ministry of the Interior.

The search for the disappeared is also complicated by the fact that they are immediately tried in solitary confinement behind closed doors.
“He used to detain him at night and in the morning he was taken to court, fined or sent. He was traceable. Now he is being tried in the same remand centers, where court hearings are held. According to the people convicted there. , each person has between 2 and 3 minutes for the case. Nobody listens to their explanations, nobody is interested “, says V. Fugašas.

Valentinas Stefanovičius adds that during these procedures most of the detainees receive administrative arrest: the majority up to 15 days, some and all 25.

But even in such a rush, the courts do not get along, says the human rights defender. On the morning of August 13, he was released in Minsk and Žodzina after spending 72 hours behind bars, during which time he was unable to convict him. They can take on administrative responsibility later; Under Belarusian law, this can be done within two months after the violation of the law.

Furthermore, those who have already been placed under administrative arrest by a court are released, but those people are currently unable to serve their sentences, there are simply no places in the remand center. Human rights defenders explain that this does not absolve them of responsibility: according to the law, a sentence of administrative arrest can be served within a year.

The less fortunate sit in the colony, not in solitary confinement. Human rights defenders are aware of these cases, for example, in the stricter regime of colony no. 5 in Ivaceviči, Brest region. All this, according to V. Stefanovičius from Vesta, testifies to the fact that “the system is overheating and has become unmanageable.”

“Now you know why to vote”

Reports of what is happening where the detainees are being held have already emerged on August 10. Later, several journalists from Russia were released. One of them is Anton Starkov, a correspondent for the Daily Storm. He and his colleague Dmitry Lacenka were arrested on the first night of protests in central Minsk. The journalists managed to see with their own eyes how the owners beat up and took out Meduza’s special correspondent, Maxim Solopov (and even managed to film it all).

Starkov and Lacenka spent a day in the isolation center for offenders. As soon as he was released, A. Starkov told Meduza that they had received no food or water during that time. After returning to Russia, the journalist said he spent the night after his arrest in an enclosed courtyard to walk.

The phone and other personal items were removed only in the morning when it was transferred to the quad chamber. I had 15 people.

“It just came to our knowledge then. Get off the bus, defend yourself in the hallway where the security guards are. I was able to slip and lost practically nothing. When I entered the first cell, I began to explain that I was a Russian citizen and began to demand that the consul was summoned. He replied: “What kind of citizen? Importer. We will give it to you soon.”

He treated the Belarusians more cruelly. “All night we sat outside, we heard beatings and harassment. Local officials did “educational work” with the detainees.

“You will no longer go to the square” – and the blow. “He will not get any closer to the officials,” he said. It took me a long time to crawl on the roads after the prison yard. We heard an officer howl: “On the road! Down! ”. Judging from the sounds of the pounding, no one was too distorted. When the officers got tired, they said: “In any case, nobody here touched you with their finger.”

Stanislavas Ivaškevičius, another journalist, also heard blows and screams. Recently he asked about the role of women in the life of Alexander Lukashenko and in the government of the country as a whole. In an interview with Medusa, he said that force had been used against him only once.

On the second day of his arrest, on August 10, he and his cellmates were rescued to the field, where a kind of corridor of suffering awaited him. On both sides were officers of the power structures with sticks.

“We had to run down that corridor and collect all the blows,” explains the journalist.

During the arrest, according to S. Ivaškevičius, the officials “treated him with tact”, but the next day it became clear that “they had heard ideological teachings”. He repeated the obviously memorized phrases: “And how were you with us yesterday?”, “We are sitting here for the second shift because of you, without a bite in our mouth.” And then there was a very fierce crowd in that hallway. The farther away, the more angry and aggressive he became ”, the journalist recalls recent events.

S. Ivaškevičius spent two days in the isolator. During that time, along with 12 other detainees, he was locked up in a triple cell. “Initially, we agree on the order of who sits and sleep for two. Those who didn’t wait their turn fell asleep directly on the ground. Those who rested at least a little, even though their time was not up, willingly gave way to others.

Then we all sleep together. During those two days we were closed, the only food we got was a loaf of bread. All the people in the camera were intelligent, nobody dared to take the last piece, ”the journalist reminds the friends of the camera.

Although the journalist was arrested before the protests began (August 9) during an interview at one of the polling stations, the court found the correspondent guilty of participating in an unauthorized protest and sentenced about 23,000. Fine of 600 Russian rubles. S Ivaškevičius says that together with him he only released three people from the detention center, the rest of the day was assigned by the court the same day.

“From what I understand, the judge decided to release me because I have a minor child, I support a family. I mean that being a journalist had no effect in this case, ”he emphasizes.

When they were released, they did not return the items: phone, passport, keys and bags. “He moved a few kilometers away from solitary confinement and disembarked – keep thinking for yourself. This is done mainly because there are several hundred close and supportive people waiting in the isolators, from whom they hide what they release so as not to cause discomfort”, explains the journalist.

Minsk resident Pavel has not yet been able to retrieve his personal belongings; his name has been changed at his request. He spent more than two days in solitary confinement and was released on August 12.

During an interview with Medusa, Pavel explained that he was detained late on the night of August 9, while a friend was waiting at the bus stop.

Pavel was initially taken to the Oktyabrsky Detention Center, where a protocol on minor vandalism was completed. He soon moved to Isolator Okrestino. “As soon as we arrived, the pressure started immediately. Maximum demoralization. Screaming at you, flowing with the scariest words, trying to physically break: on the wall, with your hands behind your back, you can hit your knees. Supposedly bad. When you’re standing by the wall, you need to slim your legs as much as possible, ”recalls the Minsk resident.

He spent the first night with other friends from fate in a cell with four beds. He did not feed. On the second night, all were defended in the corridor to sign protocols, the latter had nothing to do with those issued to them by the regional board of the Ministry of the Interior.

Pavel’s protocol, for example, states that he was no longer detained for minor vandalism but for participating in protests. “Although the officers did not hit me directly, they shook his shoulder and neck very roughly: ‘Come on, sign! If I have to stay here the third day because of you, I’ll be even sicker. “Someone signed, someone didn’t. I agreed to everything to just run,” says Pavel.

Later, Pavel was transferred to another cell, where forty people had six beds.

I had to sleep everywhere, even under the beds.

“We agreed that there are two beds in a bed at the same time, one and a half under the bed, because it is difficult to fit two beds. The rest – what do you like. Patalas gave those who had to stay on the ground, still this. He had a real advantage: a pillow, but he also shared it. All the people wanted to rest, “explains a resident of the Belarusian capital.

Pavel did not receive a trial. Early in the morning of August 12, the guards removed him and eight other people from the cell and began to strangle him with sticks.

“You will not accept any more protests! I will remember you!” The violent officials shouted.

“It reminded me of a slot machine when a mole comes out of a cave and needs to be hit with a shovel. Each officer hits what he sees without choosing a victim. And they know how to beat in a way that doesn’t break anything, but it hurts a lot. They basically hit me on the thighs. The loud screams were hit even harder. Its objective is to make the victim suffer as much as possible, to break the victim as much as possible at that moment. I am patient. I didn’t even smoke, ”the man recalls the ordeal.

After such an execution, the detainees were placed on the wall, waiting for the release queue. Pavel recalls that the officers were in crisis at the time: “Look, we’re lining them up here like a shootout.”

According to Pavel, what surprised him the most was the number of women detained here in the Okrestin isolate. They kept separate from the men, but Pavel heard their voices through the chamber’s open cell door. According to student Karina (her name was also changed at the request of the girl), who was interviewed by Tut. For the journalists, he did not even give the detained women toilet paper, and when they asked him to eat, he said: “Now you know how to vote.”

Hell on earth

“A lot of people are lying next to each other, beating and taunting them,” a female voice is heard behind the scenes. The video, which was shot in an apartment on Oktyabrsk Street near the regional Interior Ministry board, shows the courtyard of a militia compound: people lying on top of each other on the ground practically on top of each other, all with their hands behind their back.

Officials of power structures dressed in black, their insignia cannot be seen. Another recording, which was also filmed in front of the police station, shows officers taking detainees out of the building, kneeling and with winter batons.

“Lined up against the wall, legs wider, shoulders, arms overhead. It brought even more people. So most of us go from two hours a night to the second day. 40-60 people drank two or three bottles of water, took a sip, were sent from hand to hand, “one of the detainees told VotTak.

According to the interlocutor, many things got worse at dawn: “People began to lose consciousness, an ambulance had to be called. Hell on earth. It’s a real hell ”, summed up the detainee, who had already been released.

Russian Znak.com journalist Nikita Telshenko recounts the extremely cruel treatment of detainees in another isolator in the Belarusian capital. He was arrested on the night of August 10 and they could not be contacted for more than a day.

“People were lying on the floor, a living carpet. I had to go through them. It was a shame because I put it in someone’s hand, but I just didn’t see where it was going, my head was really sunk. “Everyone on the ground, face down!” The officials yelled. And I understand that there is no longer a place to lie, people are already in their blood ”, N. Teliženka describes the images.

He spent 16 hours in the isolator. During all that time, the detainees were beaten. The reason could have been the refusal to instruct the officials to pray the “Our Father”, or simply not turn their heads, says the journalist.

“There were blows, screams, moans from all sides. There seemed to be a lot of people who had something broken: someone’s arms, someone’s legs, and maybe even someone’s back, because they were just screaming in pain from the slightest movement. (…) It feels as if people have been trampled against concrete, ”continues N. Teliženka with her story.

He was transferred from the regional board of the Interior Ministry to an isolator in Žodzina. According to the reporter, the people were placed on a bus, like firewood, in three layers. Officials beat them because of tattoos, long hair, or attempts to slightly reposition their bodies without permission. There was no talk of any bathroom visits: I had to take care of the natural affairs below me, the officials were spat on by requests.

“When our satellites got very bored, they were told to sing, mostly to sing the Belarusian anthem, and everything was filmed on the phones. If you didn’t like the performance, you beat again. Did one sing wrong? The courage to sing again, scored the success he had. “If you think you are suffering now, know that it will not hurt you, it will hurt you in jail, your loved ones will not recognize you.” That’s what the guards told us, ”recalls the journalist.

Soon, people from the Russian embassy reached N. Teliženko in the solitary confinement of Žodzina, and he was released.

“If I get there a second time, I will not leave”

Violence against detainees is being used not only in Minsk but also in other Belarusian cities, said Valdis Fugash, a human rights activist and member of Human Constanta. Police departments and isolators are overcrowded across the country.

“It is possible to name Mogilev. The list compiled by our colleagues shows around 250 people. It is impossible to even imagine such a number of detainees in Mogilev. According to the data of my colleagues, due to the lack of places, some detainees were thrown into the detention centers in the smaller surrounding towns, ”said V. Fugašas.

As in Minsk, it is also not clear here what legal structure are held in solitary confinement. As a rule, they are placed there by men in black uniforms without insignia and ski masks. These men now abound on the streets of Belarus, said a human rights activist.

“The main striking force on the streets of the people who were known to be in the police stations is the riot police. But at the same time, there are many officers dressed in black, Fugash said, and it is difficult to say who the men really are. they use violence in detention centers. People were still in a state of shock when someone needed medical help. I guess these perpetrators don’t carry identification marks either. “

Valentinas Stefanovičius de Viasna said that employees appointed by the Interior Ministry, who usually work in pre-trial detention centers, have been replaced and do not play any role. According to the man, the situation here has already been taken over by special forces.

It is unclear who arrested Catherine’s 14-year-old son Alexei from Brest (names have changed). “He is very scared, he does not even want to see a doctor because he is intimidated. Talk about what happened to the best of your ability. I’m just listening, “Jekaterina said.

On August 11, the son did not return to the tutor after school. At eight o’clock in the evening, Catherine was alarmed. From the start of the protests, he agreed with his son that he would not go anywhere late at night.

“Around nine thirty we went out to look for him. So there were no demonstrations in the center, “said the woman,” my husband came to the owners to ask if he didn’t know where our son might be. They laughed and said, “Make them feel at home.”

After the incident, the woman started calling Alexei’s friends, but no one knew where the boy was. “24 hours we started calling the hospitals. There was no way he could find a place for me. There are no hospitals, no ambulances in the crew, no morgue. It was terrible,” Jekaterina said.

Alexei wasn’t in the police department either. She wrote a statement with the men about the missing person. According to the woman, that night there were many relatives of the detainees at the Moskovskaya police station: “we were all crying.”

Around three o’clock in the evening, the woman received a call from the militia, they informed her that her son was at the headquarters of the Department of the Interior in the Lenin district, although they had previously told her that he was not there.

“When we arrived, the detainees were lined up like repeat offenders with their faces pressed to the wall,” Catherine said, “I went in. He didn’t even turn around.” I said “son”. He did not answer. It wasn’t until the woman who cared for him said “possible” that he turned around, hugged me and kissed me, saying, “Mom, forgive me.”

At his home, Alexei said he was detained on the way home. “They didn’t like his Antihero hoodie and sneakers,” Catherine said.

As the son told me, the officers shook his backpack. Looking at his English textbook, they asked, “Are you with the fucking Nazis?” The guy was then stretched out on the ground, beaten with rubber batons and carried off in an unknown direction.

“He was treated like an adult,” Ekaterina said.

“They kept him barefoot in the basement for six hours on a dirty, urine-soaked floor. Head down. There were other boys with him, all between 16 and 17 years old. They had to keep their hands behind their heads. If someone dropped their hands, the officers immediately jumped on their bare toes with boots, hurling curses and put-downs, ”said the mother.

Alexei told him that his liver had been hit in the basement. To keep track, officials went through a bunch of magazines. The boy did not cry, he only prayed.

“Under the blouse, she had a T-shirt with the symbols from the movie The Hijacked Life. The teen prayed they didn’t take off their clothes and didn’t notice. It is normal? I’m talking now and I can hardly believe it myself, “said my mother.

According to the woman, the son kept repeating him at age 14 and asked to contact his parents. But no one heard him and eventually a security guard broke his phone. He also refused to call an ambulance, even though he was coughing up blood.

“They put the gun around their necks and loaded it. He applied crazy pressure. I can’t even say everything, it was all terrible, ”said Jekaterina.

Along with their son, the family brought another young man from the isolator, who was all bloody. He was badly beaten, so they decided to take him home. He said officers shaved his hair, stabbed him in the mouth, and told him to cry.

The woman assures that after all the events, her family will need rehabilitation.

“My husband feels terrible. He couldn’t save his son. He drove through the city like a wounded beast, looking at his son among the clans of blood and the fragments, ”said the interlocutor.

According to her, it is very important that the son does not develop a desire for revenge.

“I want him to know that yes, evil exists, that he has lived this experience, but he has lived it with dignity. I want her to build her future with a straight back, ”said her mother.

The family has not yet decided whether to write a complaint about the behavior of the militia. If it were her will, the woman would certainly not hesitate, but Alexei himself is very afraid of her.

“He says, Mom, please don’t make statements. They wrote down my address. If I get there a second time, I won’t run away. I want to explain that it would be the same as betraying you. And he replies that it is better to betray me, but don’t let me come back, “said the woman.

According to Belarusian human rights activists, it will be extremely difficult for victims of violence to prove the harm that officials have done to them and to seek justice.

V. Fugash says that it is legally possible to write a complaint about inappropriate detention conditions, but it will almost certainly be of no benefit.

“The system is so structured that no matter what evidence you provide, it probably just won’t be taken into account,” the expert said. it’s extremely difficult in this case. “

“Unfortunately, Belarus does not belong to the Council of Europe, so European mechanisms such as the Strasbourg Human Rights Court are out of our reach,” Valentin Stefanovich de Viasna told him.

“The only thing we can use is the UN mechanisms, such as the Committee against Torture,” said the activist.

V. Fugash fears that, in the context of all circumstances, the majority of victims will not document their injuries, which will make it impossible to prove violence.

“People do not undergo a medical checkup because of a simple shock, ignorance or simply because they cannot believe what happened, or simply because they do not know it is necessary. Also out of fear that it could be used against them in some way. Therefore, I am very afraid that this violence will remain invisible, “said the man.

After five days of protests over the re-election of authoritarian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenko, who had allegedly been manipulated by the opposition, officials unexpectedly announced Thursday night that some 1,000 detainees would be released, and the Interior Minister apologized to the officials. protesters. .

The detainees, who were released from a detention center in Minsk on Friday, told the AFP news agency that they had been beaten without food, water and medical assistance, and said they were not allowed to sleep.

“I burned my hands on cigarettes,” said 25-year-old Maxim Dozhenka, who had been arrested despite not participating in the protests.

“He hit me on the head, I feel bad, dizzy,” added the man, who was later taken to hospital.

Mikhail Chernenkov, a 43-year-old businessman, said he was tortured by discharging an electrical impulse device and being beaten with sticks in a militia unit. It showed AFP’s buttocks with bruises on it.

“It’s torture,” he said. Chernenkov added that he, like many others, was forced to sleep outside because the cells were overcrowded. The businessman also said that he did not participate in the protests.

Hundreds of detained friends and family waited at the detention center; volunteers distributed food and blankets.

The militia has reported since Sunday night, when protests against Lukashenko’s electoral victory began, according to preliminary official results, which collected more than 80 percent. more than 6.7 thousand votes were detained. votes.