Belarus: Security Forces Tortured Detainees

People detained during the protests, including many who had been beaten and injured, began to be released en masse in Belarus on Thursday evening. This was reported by TUT.BY.

“People released from protests from the detention center in Okrestsin Street were released at about 10:30 p.m. Up to 30 people were released in the first half-hour. People continue to be released,” the newspaper writes.

According to those who were in the detention center, they were beaten on their legs, backs and buttocks. These parts of the body are now blue and black. Security forces tortured the detainees with electric shocks, cut their hair with a knife and dyed it. They even beat women.

In general, everyone who went out after 11 p.m. was a woman. Among them, there was an ambulance doctor named Anastasiya. She says she was detained on the night of 12 August. She and her colleagues helped the victims after work, and when they returned, their car was stopped. The girl was in a white coat at that moment.

“A SWAT team stopped the car with us, threw it out, put machine guns on our heads, that’s all – and brought us here. 50 people were in a cell for four people. The first day we stood in the yard for walks. There we were not fed; they did not give us water. The first water they gave us was in 15 hours. It was demanded with scandal and hysteria. On the second day they brought bread and porridge,” says Anastasiya.

The doctor described the torture of the detainees: “We heard that men were beaten every night so that they just howled. The poor boys just howled. They were forced to sing the anthem of Belarus and beaten. The blood stopped from what we heard every night.”

It should be recalled that during the protests after the presidential election on 9 August, more than 6,700 people were detained. Many were beaten, more than 250 were hospitalized, and two people died.

Natalia Tolub