Beaten youth activist demands a criminal case be instigated against policemen
On 27 May, the police violently dispersed a bicycle rally organized by activists of the BPF Youth. Several participants of the action were detained and beaten. One of them, Zmitser Parmon, was taken to clinical hospital #6 with fracture of a clavicle.
On 2 June he applied to the Tsentralny District Procuracy of Minsk with the request to hold a prosecutorial check-up on the fact of the beating and draw the guilty to account.
Human rights defender Nasta Loika paid a visit to the hospital to see Zmitser, who underwent a complex surgical operation (the clavicle was fixed with a metal plate). According to her, he doesn't feel very well – his temperature went up after the operation. The victim signed the application to the procuracy in which he described the use of violence by officers of law-enforcement agencies. The time will show whether the perpetrators will be brought to account.
Here's the text of the complaint:
'I, a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, was beaten by police officers on 27 May 2010, as a result of which I was taken to hospital and stay there with the diagnosis 'fracture of a clavicle'.
On 27 May 2010 I was riding on a bicycle with a group of my friends (about ten persons) by a bikeway. At about 6.20 p.m. several strangers ran up to me at the crossing of Peramozhtsy and Masherau Avenue and started tearing the white cloth with a red strip that was fixed on my shoulders. I didn’t understand what was happening, as none of them introduced themselves or explained the reasons for their actions. When my property was taken away, Franak Viachorka approached them and demanded that they introduced themselves and returned the cloth. Then he seized the cloth by an end. As a result, one of the men showed his police certificate (according to Franak, it was Mikhail Zhdanovich), after which all of them started dragging Franak and hitting him with fists. They pulled him in the dark-blue minibus with the number plate 9427 IK-7, and I went away, but my way was blocked by this minibus.
These people caught up with me, knocked me down and started hitting me with their fists. Then they threw me into the bus. When I sat there, I felt an acute pain in my shoulder. I touched it and understood that the bone was moving in a strange way. However, they threw me down on the floor and delivered some more blows. I told the policemen that I possibly had a broken clavicle, but they hit me some more times in response.
At the Tsentralny District Police Department, when I was almost losing conscience, a woman examined me and said that my clavicle was broken. Only then did they call an ambulance. In 10 minutes it arrived and took me to hospital. There an X-ray was made and I was diagnosed with fracture of the clavicle.
Thus, I was groundlessly beaten by police (at least one of them is a policeman). Apartment from Franak Viachorka, my detention was witnessed by Anton Koipish and Kasia Davydzik.
At hospital, I was visited by the senior police lieutenant V.Cheslauski, who composed a protocol of questioning and gave me a direction for forensic expertise, which I can undergo only after I am operated and signed out of the hospital. That's why I ask You to make an inquiry to Minsk city clinical hospital #6 and attach the appropriate medical documents to my case. I also consider it important that the case be investigated by the procuracy, as long as the crime was committed by police officers.
In connection with the aforesaid, I ASK:
1. to instigate a criminal case on the fact of my beating on the basis of Articles 166 and 168 of the Criminal Process Code of the Republic of Belarus;
Attachments: information from mass media (including the photos of Radio Liberty where the persons who detain Viachorka can be seen (later they detained me).
