"They beat me with a flagpole to make me kneel in front of the head of the police department". A story of an ex political prisoner
Student Uladzislau Biahun was detained on May 8, 2023 for removing the state red-green flag in Minsk. The man had been detained for two months, and after that he was sentenced to three months of arrest for "desecration of state symbols" (Article 370 of the Criminal Code). Uladzislau wanted to stay in Belarus after his imprisonment, but it did not work out: at the university he was told to leave, at work he was told to quit at his own request, other employers did not want to hire him knowing his article, and the police visited him with with checks too often. Fearing a new detention, Uladzislau decided to leave the country. Uladzislau Biahun spoke with Viasna about his brutal detention and persecution for the removal of the national flag.
- Uladzislau Biahun. Photo: spring96.org
"From this moment on, you have gone missing"
Since 2020, the man had been taking off red-green flags in Minsk and sometimes changed them to white-red-white flags, thus expressing his protest against the current government of Belarus. Uladzislau was detained for such action in early May 2023.
"They caught me near a building entrance. I struggled and even hit one with my elbow, because I did not understand that it was the police. But when I was tased, I realized that this was a detention. Four people pushed me into a car. They immediately took away my phone, and started to force the password out of me: they beat me on the sides and tased me. They also threatened to take me to a forest and said: 'From this moment on, you have gone missing'."
"Everything is very sad and bad at Akrescina"
- Uladzislau Biahun. Photo: spring96.org
In the evening, the man was taken to the police department of the Peršamajski District of Minsk.
"In the police department, I had two interrogations. During them, my hands and feet were handcuffed to a wooden chair. Then they took me to the head of the police department, and there they put me on my knees in front of him. Because I have piercings, they called me a 'homosexualist'. They beat me with a flagpole to make me kneel in front of the head of the police department. They also threatened to put it where the sun don't shine."
After that, the man was sent to the temporary detention facility at Akrescina as part of the criminal case.
Everything is very sad and bad at Akrescina. There I was constantly held in a single-person punishment cell, where there were 6–11 more people. It was about one and a half by three meters in size, so when we went to sleep, we had to bend our legs. We took turns sleeping, because they woke us up every two hours anyway, ostensibly to check that no one escaped, although this is impossible."
"Everyone at Akrescina dreamed of getting to the pre-trial detention centre as soon as possible"
- Uladzislau Biahun. Photo: spring96.org
The man was taken to investigative actions every day, where they pressed him to admit that he participated in 2020 protests.
"They randomly pointed fingers at a person [on protest photos] and asked me to sign a paper saying that it was me. When I refused, they said that we would meet the next day. I was picked up from my cell before breakfast and brought back late at night, at around 23 o'clock or even at one o'clock at night. I haven't been fed all this time. In addition, all warm clothes were taken away. It was cold. Everyone at Akrescina dreamed of getting to the pre-trial detention centre as soon as possible, because the conditions there are better.
I remember being taken from the police department to Akrescina with a man who asked what I had done that they handcuffed me. He had no handcuffs and said he had killed a man..."
"I counted the days before my release each minute"
- Uladzislau Biahun. Photo: spring96.org
"The last few days have been some of the most difficult during the entire period of detention. I counted the days before my release each minute. They gave me money for a ticket, a couple of rubles for food and showed me which way the city and the stop are, and then do what you want. I didn't know if my family would meet me, because I didn't understand if my letter with the release date had reached them. So I went to the train station, where I found out that nothing goes to Minsk anymore... I didn't know what to do, and I saw my brother at the train station."
Uladzislau was released in August 2023. He left Belarus in February 2024. Before that, he was banned from leaving the country: he found that out just before leaving.
"I left because some obscure checks started at my home, although I served my time, and they should not have happened. The security forces came to my place. While one was talking to me in a room, the other opened and inspected the cabinets. I think they could plant something at any moment... And I wouldn't be able to prove anything."
