Information about torture in KGB jail is “state secret”

Upon release from the KGB detention center in March 2011 former presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich reported numerous facts of abuse and torture, and filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office urging the officials to investigate the allegations.

While the politician was in Belarus, the prosecuting authorities could not answer his request, and only after his departure abroad, it reported that as a result of the probe it was decided to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings.

Recently Ales Mikhalevich’s lawyer received a curious document.

“It turns out that materials of the inspection carried out following my torture report is a state secret. And so the lawyer will not only be denied the right to see the materials, but will not even be given a copy of the refusal to institute criminal proceedings,” Ales Mikhalevich wrote on his Facebook account. “When I was in prison, they said that the presence of men in black who mocked and tortured us is a “secret of investigation.” Now those persons are promoted to a “secret protected by law.”