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MOSCOW—
Alexander Cherevach,
a software program engineer in Belarus, stated he was coming back from work when police stopped him on the road in Minsk and accused him of taking part in mass demonstrations in opposition to the nation’s authoritarian president,
Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr. Cherevach, 26, stated that when he wouldn’t unlock his laptop and telephone, the officers shoved him right into a van and punched and kicked him earlier than threatening to rape him with a baton.
Beatings throughout three days in detention left Mr. Cherevach with a concussion, a fractured lumbar vertebra, a bruised kidney and hematomas throughout his physique, in accordance to medical reviews reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. He was hospitalized for six days.
“I haven’t processed it all yet, but of course I’m afraid,” stated Mr. Cherevach, who spoke by telephone from the Belarusian capital.
Human-rights teams, political analysts and opposition activists say that in Mr. Lukashenko’s greater than twenty years as head of state, safety forces have used arbitrary detentions, beatings and torture in opposition to these considered as a risk to his energy.
After Mr. Lukashenko claimed victory in an Aug. 9 presidential election that opposition supporters and the European Union dismissed as fraudulent, roughly 7,000 individuals had been detained for protesting, although practically all had been subsequently launched. Human-rights researchers say they’ve documented greater than 500 instances of individuals being crushed and tortured whereas detained by safety forces or at detention facilities.
“This is not repression light. It’s full-fledged repression,” stated
Andrei Sannikov,
an exiled former opposition chief who was imprisoned and tortured a couple of months after difficult Mr. Lukashenko in a 2010 election. “This is about a brutal dictatorship.”
Neither Mr. Lukashenko’s workplace nor Belarus’s Interior Ministry responded to a number of requests for remark concerning the remedy of detainees, although the ministry had beforehand apologized for a way riot police handled protesters on the streets. Nor did Belarus’s Committee for State Security, nonetheless recognized as the KGB, reply to requests for remark.
The Belarusian chief beforehand has denied that safety forces detained or in any other case repressed opposition supporters. On Aug. 9, he known as such allegations “fake or far-fetched” and has blamed the protest violence on overseas provocateurs and folks inebriated or medicine.
Medical Report – Alexander Cherevach
Main
Other nuanced traumas in a number of physique elements
Polytrauma : Mild closed craniocerebral damage. Concussion. Abrasion on the brow, periorbital abrasion on the left facet. Closed fracture of L3-L4 vertebra from the left facet. Right kidney contusion. Ecchymosis on the lumbar backbone space. Ecchymosis on the left shoulder and the appropriate forearm. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor of the appropriate and left thighs.
Main
Other nuanced traumas in a number of physique elements
Polytrauma : Mild closed craniocerebral damage. Concussion. Abrasion on the brow, periorbital abrasion on the left facet. Closed fracture of L3-L4 vertebra from the left facet. Right kidney contusion. Ecchymosis on the lumbar backbone space. Ecchymosis on the left shoulder and the appropriate forearm. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor of the appropriate and left thighs.
Main
Other nuanced traumas in a number of physique elements
Polytrauma : Mild closed craniocerebral damage. Concussion. Abrasion on the brow, periorbital abrasion on the left facet. Closed fracture of L3-L4 vertebra from the left facet. Right kidney contusion. Ecchymosis on the lumbar backbone space. Ecchymosis on the left shoulder and the appropriate forearm. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor of the appropriate and left thighs.
Заключительный диагноз
Основной
Другие уточненные травмы с вовлечением нескольких областей тела
Сочетанная травма: ЗЧМТ легкой степени. Сотрясение головного мозга. Ссадина лобной области, параорбитальная ссадина слева. Закрытый перелом поперечных отростков L3-L4 справа. Ушиб правой почки. Кровоподтек области ПОП. Кровоподтеки левого плеча и правого предплечья. Кровоподтеки задней поверхности правого и левого бедер.
Main
Other nuanced traumas in a number of physique elements
Polytrauma : Mild closed craniocerebral damage. Concussion. Abrasion on the brow, periorbital abrasion on the left facet. Closed fracture of L3-L4 vertebra from the left facet. Right kidney contusion. Ecchymosis on the lumbar backbone space. Ecchymosis on the left shoulder and the appropriate forearm. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor of the appropriate and left thighs.
He has stated that law-enforcement officers have a proper to defend themselves and, every week after the vote, awarded medals to safety forces, who opposition leaders and rights activists stated had been concerned in violently suppressing the protests. The nation’s investigative committee stated 124 law-enforcement officers complained about violence directed at them.
The Interior Ministry acknowledged Wednesday receiving complaints concerning the remedy of detainees, state media reported, whereas Belarus’s prosecutor normal’s workplace stated in August it had created a fee to conduct preliminary checks relating to allegations of violence in opposition to civilians through the protests.
However, authorities haven’t launched a single legal investigation, rights activists stated. Investigators didn’t reply to requests for touch upon why no legal probes have been launched. Their public statements point out they’re at the moment conducting preliminary checks.
U.S. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo
known as Wednesday for an finish to violence directed at protesters, and stated Washington was reviewing with its trans-Atlantic companions important, focused sanctions on anybody concerned in human-rights abuses in Belarus.
A workforce of unbiased specialists assembled by the United Nations has demanded that Belarus cease the alleged torture of detainees, whereas the European Union has known as for a “thorough and transparent” investigation of abuses as it weighs the scope of sanctions it would apply.
“The use of torture is illegal under all circumstances and can never be justified,”
Peter Stano,
a spokesman for the European Commission, stated. “State violence and repression is in no way a proportionate reaction to peaceful protests.”
Russia, however, has stated it will stand by Mr. Lukashenko. Russian President
Vladimir Putin
has stated he would ship Russian safety forces to defend him if essential.
Valentin Stefanovich,
deputy director of the Belarusian human rights-group Viasna, stated abuse of prisoners detained within the wake of the August election and the protests over the outcomes was widespread and systematic.
The group interviewed tons of of people that stated they had been tortured. Men taken to detention facilities over the previous month advised Viasna investigators that they had been stripped bare and advised to kneel, earlier than being kicked, punched, and struck with batons.
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Female detainees stated they had been made to sit in close by cells and hear to the boys’s screams. Both women and men stated they had been threatened with rape. Others stated they had been subjected to electrical shocks.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” stated
Oleg Kozlovsky,
a researcher for rights group Amnesty International. He stated he suspects many situations of torture go unreported. “When most of these people are released they are very depressed, very scared. It’s quite a difficult psychological situation and people try to suppress this trauma.”
Belarus hasn’t ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and the nation doesn’t have an unbiased company to examine abuses. Human-rights teams are sometimes barred from visiting detention facilities and monitoring court docket instances, rights activists say. Government officers couldn’t be reached to confirm or clarify this coverage.
Ruslan Khamidullin,
a 30-year-old software program engineer, stated safety officers shoved him off his bike and threw him right into a police truck, the place he was crushed with “batons and their boots and fists,” he stated. The abuse grew to become extra violent when officers confiscated his telephone and located photos of road protests and clashes he had filmed from his residence window.
Later at a police station, masked officers beat him with batons and punched and kicked him, he stated. They compelled him to lie face down, hogtied, for 9 hours with different prisoners. The following day he was compelled to stand going through a wall for an additional 9 hours earlier than the beatings resumed, Mr. Khamidullin stated.
Mr. Khamidullin stated he and different prisoners had been made to run a gantlet between two traces of policemen who hit them with batons, earlier than being crammed right into a cell with round 120 different individuals.
Doctors later discovered he had suffered a concussion and deep bruises amongst different critical accidents, in accordance to data seen by The Journal.
The ordeal was sufficient, Mr. Khamidullin stated, to scare him off any protests, a minimum of within the quick time period.
“For now, for me, it’s safety first,” he stated. “I hope to find justice one day.”
Medical Report – Robert Kiselev
Main
Other nuanced closed traumas in a number of physique elements
Mild closed craniocerebral damage of August 12, 2020. Concussion. Closed chest damage of August 12, 2020: bruised left half of the chest. Bruised posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Contused wound of the higher lip.
Main
Other nuanced closed traumas in a number of physique elements
Mild closed craniocerebral damage of August 12, 2020. Concussion. Closed chest damage of August 12, 2020: bruised left half of the chest. Bruised posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Contused wound of the higher lip.
Main
Other nuanced closed traumas in a number of physique elements
Mild closed craniocerebral damage of August 12, 2020. Concussion. Closed chest damage of August 12, 2020: bruised left half of the chest. Bruised posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Contused wound of the higher lip.
Main
Other nuanced closed traumas in a number of physique elements
Mild closed craniocerebral damage of August 12, 2020. Concussion. Closed chest damage of August 12, 2020: bruised left half of the chest. Bruised posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Ecchymosis on the posterior floor smooth tissues of the appropriate thigh and left shin. Contused wound of the higher lip.
Robert Kiselev,
24, a enterprise guide, who voted for opposition chief
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya
within the election, thinks his white wristbands—an emblem of the protest motion—gave him away as a possible opposition supporter when he was strolling house from a shopping mall on Aug. 12.
He stated he hadn’t been collaborating in any protests that night, however safety forces threw him in opposition to a bus and started to beat him with batons.
The beating continued when he was bundled contained in the bus, his fingers sure behind his again. In ache, he stated he begged for a physician, even as his captors ate takeaway meals and smoked digital cigarettes.
“To be honest, I now fear for my life,” Mr. Kiselev stated. After he was taken to the hospital underneath police guard, medical doctors discovered hemorrhaging within the smooth tissues of a thigh and shin and extreme trauma and bruising to his chest, in accordance to a medical report seen by The Journal, as well as to a concussion.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cherevach stated police mocked him as he lay on the ground of the van, being kicked and punched. He might hear the moans of one other detainee who was being ordered to eat the white bracelet he wore.
When his captors threatened to penetrate Mr. Cherevach with a baton, he gave in and disclosed the passcode to his laptop and telephone, the place his interrogators discovered he adopted antigovernment social media teams. This led to additional beatings, he stated, and his switch to Minsk’s infamous detention heart on Okrestino lane, the place he spent two nights in a small concrete cell with dozens of different individuals. The detainees took turns to sit and stand.
Mr. Cherevach was launched with out being charged, however agreed—underneath duress, he stated—to signal paperwork promising not to take part in antigovernment protests.
“I was mentally shaken, so I agreed to sign the papers,” he stated. “I’m very upset with what happened to me and others.”
—
Valentina Ochirova
in Moscow and
Laurence Norman
in Brussels contributed to this text.
Write to Ann M. Simmons at [email protected]
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