Vitsebsk: Police Beat People at Trial of Valery Shchukin

Source: www.charter97.org

On 6 June the police detained 5 opposition activists near Pershamaiski court of Vitebsk, where a trial over a well-known human rights activist Valery Shchukin started. Among the detainees there are Ales Krutkin, Aliaksandr Dzeravianka and Zmitser Liasnikovich. As the Charter’97 press-center has been informed by a young activist Krystsina Shatsikava, more than 20 persons were standing near the building of the court, when policemen approached them and demanded to disband.

’We were standing and waiting for Valery Shchukin when a policeman came up to us and ordered to disband. As said by him, we were violation a law on mass rallies. We said that we were simply standing and violating nothing. Then the policemen were ordered to seize us. They attacked people. A violet minivan arrived; it was not a police van. People were brutally pushed into it. My 9-year-old son Yahor was hit head against the car at that moment. The boy started shouting loudly. Volha Karach was knocked on the ground. Zmitser Liasnikovich rushed to help her, and was seized, his clothes torn,’ Krystsina Shatsikava said.

According to her, there was an attempt to detain Valery Shchukin who ran out from the building of the court to defend people. Policemen had to release him, as after all, he was just a defendant.

An ambulance car was called in for Shatsikava’s son. The boy is examined by doctors.