Violent detention of participant of 19 December rally
A Slutsk resident, Vadzim Ramanau, was detained and beaten in an apartment in Bialetski Street in Minsk.
Prior to the detention, he had received several telephone calls from the
police, who tried to invite him for a talk because his telephone number had
been registered in Nezalezhnasts
Square in Minsk
during the post-election protest rally. The youngster refused to come to them,
because he was busy working and passing university exams.
At about 9 p.m. on 31 March he received a telephone call and was invited for a
talk at the police department for 9.30 p.m. He agreed. In several minutes
somebody knocked on the door.
According to Vadzim's girlfriend Halina Isayeva, who was there at the time, the
people started breaking the door, that's why she and Vadzim opened it in 10
minutes. After this, a man in a police uniform and another one, in black, burst
into the apartment. They didn't introduce themselves and demanded that Isayeva
and Ramanau showed their passports. They also asked where they worked, lived
and studied, when the youngsters asked why they had to show the documents.
The visitors started poking into the dwellers' belongings, looking of the
passports. Then they beat Vadzim before the girl's eyes. “At first the one who
was in black kicked him in stomach, then they pushed him with feet, knocked him
down, twisted his arms and put him in hand-cuffs. They didn't even let him put
his shoes on!”, she said. “He secretly took his mobile with him and phoned me
from the police department. He said that he was sitting in the corridor, on the
floor. Then his mobile was taken away from him.”
As we learned, the detainee was
interrogated by Siarhei Kanetski, an interrogator of the Maskouski District
Police Department of Minsk.
In a telephone conversation Mr. Kanetski advised Ramanau’s
relatives to find a lawyer for him, as he is allegedly suspected in a repeated
theft from an apartment, committed by a group of individuals (Article 205 of
the Criminal Code).
Human Rights Chronicle
