News on the topic: torture
15.07.2016 Prison doctor to stand trial over fatal neglect
The Prosecutor General's Office has completed the investigation into the death of Ihar Ptsichkin in jail No. 1 of Minsk in August 2014. According to latest information, the criminal case against paramedic Aliaksandr Krylou will soon reach the court.
23.06.2016 Freelance journalists appeal violent detention in Lojeŭ
Freelance journalists Kanstantsin Zhukouski and Aliaksei Atroshchankau, who were detained on June 21 in the town of Lojeŭ, Homieĺ region, have written to the Investigation Committee asking the authorities to investigate their brutal detention by the police officers. The reporters say they were beaten after the arrest.
23.03.2016 Viciebsk police go unpunished in beating case
The Viciebsk city office of the Investigative Committee has refused to open a criminal case to investigate the beating of Pavel Rasliakou. According to him, he was badly beaten by employees of the Kastryčnicki district police department on 1 September 2015.
28.01.2016 Man in Ivacevičy complains about police-related violence
Siarhei Dyliuk, 57, has been reportedly beaten by police officers during interrogation at the Ivacevičy department of internal affairs on January 23. According to him, he was forced to sign a confession to stealing his neighbor’s TV tuner, as he feared the police officers could kill him.
20.01.2016 Vitebsk Investigative Committee Dismissed Allegations of Beating by Police Officer
A student of the veterinary academy from Vitebsk Pavel Rasliakou appealed for help to the HRC Viasna: the student was beaten by investigators of the department of the interior of the Kastrychnitski district administration in the process of questioning about a case of theft. An official inquiry into his complaint failed to establish the facts he outlined and dismissed the demand to initiate a criminal case.
06.10.2015 Homieĺ resident complains of torture and humiliation by police
Disabled of the 2nd degree Dzianis Yauseyenka appeals the illegal actions of an employee of the Navabielicki District Police Department of Homieĺ Artsiom Siurtukou at the prosecutor's office and challenges the verdict of the Navabielicki District Court at the Homieĺ Regional Court.
20.08.2015 Poisoning with bleach: Torture or ‘violation of sanitary norms”?
The Investigative Committee of Belarus has quashed a decision not to institute criminal proceedings against employees of the Mahilioŭ-based penal colony No. 15, who tortured prisoner Piotr Kuchura with bleach during his confinement in the punishment cell. However, when notifying the convict, a representative of the Investigative Committee writes about a ‘violation of sanitary norms’.
15.08.2015 Suspects in case of Belarusian-language are neither charged, nor released
At about 7 p.m. on August 14, the persons who had been detained in the case of Belarusian-language graffiti, were to have been either released or presented charges. However, neither of has happened.
14.08.2015 Criminal proceedings for Belarusian-language graffiti, lawlessness of riot police (video, photos)
After 4 p.m. on August 11 in Minsk, people in black uniforms with guns and helmets broke into three different apartments. Young residents were knocked down to the floor. In one of the apartments they were kept on the floor for about an hour, and electric shockers were used towards them without any reasons.
14.07.2015 Mikalai Dziadok. Bitter taste of colony in Horki
Mikalai Dziadok has been held in the correctional colony in Horki for two months already. He was transferred there on May 12, after being sentenced to one year of imprisonment under Article 411 of the Criminal Code.
08.07.2015 Shabnam Khudoydodova not allowed to meet with lawyer
Shabnam Khudoydodova, arrested activist of “Group 24”, hasn't been allowed to meet with a lawyer for over ten days.
26.06.2015 “Viasna” activists join campaign against torture
Activists of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” have joined a campaign against torture, initiated by the Russian NGO “Committee against Torture”.
26.06.2015 Pavel Sapelka: Torture is often a hidden problem in Belarus
In 1997, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 26 June as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. On this day, international and national human rights organizations remind once again that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
25.06.2015 Mother of inmate who died in jail faces obstacles in access to information
Zhanna Ptsichkina, the mother of Ihar Ptsichkin, who died in jail in 2013, has received another answer from the Prosecutor General’s Office.
23.06.2015 Kuchura case: Mahilioŭ authorities go blind to complaints
In a continuous attempt to hide the fact of torture in the Mahilioŭ-based penal colony No. 15, reported by the wife of prisoner Piotr Kuchura, officials of the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office brazenly distort the facts in their formal replies to her complaints, arguing that there was no criminal incident in the colony at all.
