News on the topic: torture
05.10.2020 "White paint was poured on my head. It was like a sign to beat me harder." Survivor stories
Stas Dziadou was detained on August 11 in Minsk next to the Peoples' Friendship Park. Stas and his friend were walking along Arlouskaya Street when they were overtaken by two vans with tinted windows. A law enforcement officer wearing a green uniform came out. The couple asked him how dangerous it was to go forward.
30.09.2020 "One of them beats you and the other aims at you with a machine gun." Survivor stories
28-year-old Minsk resident Uladzislau Salavey, a kindergarten teacher assistant, was detained on August 9 and placed in the detention center in Akrescin Street. There, he was sentenced to 14 days of arrest and then transferred to a compulsory rehabilitation center near Sluck to serve his time. Uladzislau told "Viasna" what he and others had to go through in those five days of detention.
29.09.2020 "They took away my bra with a breast prosthesis." Survivor stories
Maryia Ambrosava from Minsk told Viasna how she and her husband Yury went to a police station on August 10th to report their son missing, but found themselves in a police van and spent four days in the detention center in Akrescin Street. All these days, they were not aware that their son had been released, so when people were shouting from beatings, Maryia felt it was her son who was screaming.
27.09.2020 "Road police officers broke my arm during detention." Survivor stories
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) launched a campaign to document cases of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of protesters on August 9-13. Some testimonies of people who survived torture and violence will be published on our website as evidence of crimes committed by security forces.
23.09.2020 "I was lucky to be a journalist and to have my kidneys thrashed previously." Survivor stories
Siarhei Herasimovich was detained on 10 August at 9 p.m. near the Yubileynaya Hotel in Minsk. He was walking with his journalist colleagues when the cars on the avenue started beeping. Siarhei raised his hand in a Victory sign. Suddenly, the riot police shouted: "Come here!" The journalist walked up and was brutally thrown into the police van where the policemen started beating him with batons.
17.09.2020 Justice Is Needed for Belarus
International Scrutiny Is the Way to Get it
16.09.2020 Human rights activists insist mass torture in Belarus is crime against humanity
On September 16, FIDH Vice President and Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Valiantsin Stefanovic took part in an online press conference entitled “Belarus: Torture as a Targeted State Policy” and organized by the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and the Human Rights Center "Viasna". During the conference, several victims of torture were able to tell their stories.
16.09.2020 Torture is back: Traumatic brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage, nasal fracture
The story of a student who was beaten in a bus without license plates and got to hospital with multiple injuries
15.09.2020 HRW: OSCE, UN Human Rights Council Inquiries Needed in Belarus Torture Reports
Belarusian security forces arbitrarily detained thousands of people and systematically subjected hundreds to torture and other ill- treatment in the days following the August 9, 2020 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today.
14.09.2020 “We will shoot you and you will never be found.” Survivor stories
18-year-old Uladzimir Pahartsau was detained at about 6 pm on August 10 when he was returning home and got off a trolleybus near the Frunzienskaja metro station in Minsk. Two riot policemen approached him and said they wanted to check his ID. Uladzimir says that he was not beaten so hard compared to other detainees, because he was chosen to give an interview to a state TV channel about the “coordinators of the protests.”
11.09.2020 “People were screaming every night.” Survivor stories
A Minsk resident was detained on August 9 and left the Center for the Confinement of Offenders on the morning of August 12. All this time he, like the other detainees, was deprived of food. Forty people were held in a six-men cell, and riot police insulted and beat people at night.
07.09.2020 “They kicked me in the head with their police boots.” Survivor stories
Dzmitry Mishakouski was detained in the Maskoŭski district of Minsk, near the Malinaŭka metro station at about 5 pm on August 12. "The riot police were chasing someone. I turned up by chance, they put me in a bus or in a police van, I don't remember which. They took my phone away at once, broke it, asked for the password, I do not understand on what grounds."
04.09.2020 47 victims complain to UN Committee against Torture
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee have appealed to the UN Committee against Torture on behalf of 47 victims of police-related violence, urging the Committee to investigate the systematic use of torture in Belarus in early August 2020.
03.09.2020 "Officers abused me all the time because I’m black." Survivor stories
Hleb was detained on August 11 near the shopping center “Skala”. He says that the riot policemen detained him when he simply walked down the street with headphones on his head.
02.09.2020 UN human rights experts: Belarus must stop torturing protesters and prevent enforced disappearances
UN human rights experts* called on Belarus to stop torturing detainees and bring to justice police officers who reportedly have been humiliating and beating protesters in their custody with impunity.
