"They could be doused with a bucket of water and then tasered." Stories of former political prisoners
For the fifth year in a row, politically motivated detainees have been held in horrific conditions in Belarusian detention centers, which can be regarded as torture. The Lukashenka regime creates the worst conditions for prisoners not only in Minsk but also in the regions. Dozens of people suffer daily from the cold in concrete cells, from allergies to bedbug bites, and from humiliation during inspections. People are still held in overcrowded cells, forced to go to the toilet under surveillance cameras, and deprived of care packages with a change of underwear and warm clothes. And those who are brought to isolation cells after beatings and torture are not provided with medical care.
Viasna spoke with Belarusians convicted on administrative charges in late 2024 and early 2025 and asked them about the conditions of detention for political prisoners in different cities of Belarus. They said how injections were given through "feeders" in the door, how they were tortured with cold in the cells of a police department, about the Belarusian "Wagnerite" at Akrescina, and the means of torture used in the KGB and GUBOPiK.
- Illustrative photo by spring96.org
Minsk
Detention at the border
Volha (name changed for security reasons) came under persecution in the fall after returning from abroad. She was removed from the bus after passport control at one of the Belarusian checkpoints.
"[Customs officers] asked what we did abroad, where we went, who we talked to. They checked correspondence. They found a phrase in the messages of one girl: 'Let's meet, I'll give you the money.' It's just that her friend passed some money for her mother through that girl. And [the customs officers] asked what kind of money. 'Financing from abroad' is a red rag for them. And for any mention of contacts, money, or transfers, they start shouting: 'You're going to jail for 25 years.'"
After the trial, Volha was transferred from the temporary detention facility to the Center for Isolation of Offenders at Akrescina.
"You go into the cell, and you see underpants, tampons, and pads scattered on the floor."
During the daily checks, the prisoners must take all their things into their hands so they do not get thrown away. The only thing left in the cell were pads and tampons. "The employees scattered them all over the cell every day," Volha says.
"And the wet underpants, which dry on radiators, also had to be thrown on the floor. You go into the cell, and you see underpants, tampons and pads scattered on the floor."
"The injection was given through the 'feeder' in the door. They didn't even enter the cell"
"The biggest problem is allergy to bedbugs. There are a lot of them. Some of the girls had allergies. I heard that one girl was very ill: she had huge sores on her hands. They even called an ambulance for her, but the injection was given through the 'feeder' in the door. They didn't even enter the cell."
Cellmates told Volha that some of them were placed not in a temporary detention facility, but in the city police department (GOM) for the night before the trial.
"Those who have been through it say that the night there is the most terrible. Because there are bedbugs, homeless people, the cold is insane, and they force you to take off your shoes."
Mahilioŭ
- Mahilioŭ prison No. 4. Photo: mspring.online
"I slept on the concrete floor in a T-shirt"
In the autumn of 2024, Ivan (name changed for security reasons) was detained in Mahilioŭ. The reason was likes, comments, and subscriptions to "extremist" channels.
Riot police and GUBOPiK (Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption) officers took part in the detention of the man. They immediately put him face down on the ground, handcuffed him, and then one of the security officers kicked Ivan in the head. During the search, his entire apartment was trashed.
The man was taken for interrogation on the bus floor. The "conversation" in the Directorate's office was tough: the man was beaten and threatened with a criminal case and persecution of his family. For several hours, the security forces studied the Mahilioŭ resident's phone in detail, but they did not find anything.
Then Ivan was transported to a police department. A report was drawn up against him under Article 19.11 of the Administrative Code (dissemination of extremist materials). By nightfall, the man was placed in a cell, where "they gave him water every other time."
"Then they took me to a temporary detention facility, and it started. At first there was a search: undress, squat. The officer on duty ran to the guard and whispered in his ear that supposedly I was there for politics. Then they handcuffed me, and they took me everywhere in them.
They took me to a punishment cell. I was the third one there. They took my sweater, so I was left in socks, sweatpants, and a T-shirt. There's one bed, so I was sleeping on the concrete floor in my T-shirt."
Minsk
- The image is illustrative. A man who left the Center for Isolation of Offenders at Akrescina on August 13. Photo: Volha Shukaila, TUT.BY
Kiryl (name changed for security reasons) was serving his term of detention at Akrescina in Minsk at the end of 2024. A report was drawn up against the man in the police department under Article 19.1 of the Administrative Code (minor hooliganism).
"They all came beaten up"
The interlocutor notes that the bread they received at Akrescina was of poor quality, and mold appeared on it in half a day. And those pieces that remained were taken away.
"Those who left comments about GUBOPiK or the KGB were detained roughly. They all arrived beaten up. They lifted up their T-shirts and showed it. They could be doused with a bucket of water and then tasered. They said they could be beaten on the way to Revaliucyjnaja [the street where the GUBOPiK building is located]. They beat them there with a baton and a taser."
During the entire time of his detention, Kiryl counted 52 cellmates who were convicted for political reasons. About 10 of them were detained repeatedly immediately after one term expired. Only soap and toilet paper were accepted in care packages for detainees. But those who were detained repeatedly could be given toothpaste and a brush.
"There was a Belarusian who fought on the side of Russia in Wagner military company.
Sometimes people cooperating with the administration are planted in the cell, Kiryl says.
"From the conversations, I realized that there was a Ukrainian there for a long time, and one guy was trying to get information from him. I don't know when he was detained.
There was also a 'Wagnerite', a Belarusian who fought on the side of Russia in Wagner [a Russian non-state armed group involved in the war against Ukraine]. He was all broken. He hit some policeman, but he was detained only in an administrative case, not on criminal charges. He was in a military uniform with the chevrons of Russia, with these flags."
