Terrorist attack victim beaten for poster “State refused aid”
- 17.04.2012, 9:00
Not everyone managed to notice, Alena Lebyadzinskaya, a person injured in the terrorist attack in Minsk metro, on the day the memorial dedicated to the terrorist act victims was unveiled on Kastrychnitskaya metro station.
She came there not only with flowers she wanted to lay, but also with a poster “State refused aid”.
As said by eyewitnesses, in just a minute a traffic policeman snatched the poster from her hand, and she was left in the crowd.
Today Alena Lebyadzinskaya addressed TUT.BY and informed that on her way home she was seized by the two unknown, hit her and made her get into a minivan. She was taken to the police department. She does not know what the charges against her were.
As said by Lebyadzinskaya, after the incident with the poster she laid flowers and was returning home by metro.
“When I left Spartyunaya metro station, two unknown hurried to me, and started to drag me into a minivan. I started to shout: “Help!”, then they hit me against the minivan, and my forehead and knees were injured. Then they seized my mobile phone,” Alena told. “These two refused to present themselves, they took me into the police department of Central district. There I was asked whether it had been really me who brought the poster with a photograph, and whether it had been seized from me. It seemed to me that the policemen themselves were puzzled, they didn’t seem to know why I had been taken to them and what should be done with me.”
As said by Lebyadzinskaya, she was released from the police department in a few hours. ”At 10.30 p.m. I was at home, and I called in an ambulance. Doctors established I had a hypertensive crisis, head contusion, and offered me to go to a hospital.” On the next day Alena addressed the police department of Frunzenski district, according to the place of the incident, and filed a police statement against the actions of the unknown.
“At the police department I was given a referral for a forensic examination, and I was examined on April 13,” Alena informed.
As said by Alena, during the blast she was on the escalator.
“I was there when the ceiling collapsed. I was taken to the hospital immediately after, examined, and offered hospitalization, but I refused in a written form, as I decided to be treated at home,” Alena recalls the events of the tragic day. “On April 12 I received a phone call from the out-patient hospital, I was told to visit them urgently. I was coughing, I had fever. For a few days I was vomiting some black substance. I wrote an application to the commission called for paying material aid to the persons affected by the terrorist act under Minsk City Executive Committee. They said that to get aid they need a statement of the forensic examination. However, for some reason the experts’ examination established that I had bronchitis. The hypertensive crisis was not mentioned at all, though I had never had one previously. I was not recognized a victim officially, as I did not have serious bodily injuries.”
The injured has informed that she was on a sick leave for two weeks after the terrorist act, and she bought medicines at her own expense. “My husband died not long before the terrorist attack. After I bought medicines for my own money, I did not have money even to buy bread. I live from hand to mouth, I work in a bus depot. I can express gratitude to my employer only, for they collected money for me,” she said. “Later I was told by Minsk city executive committee’s commission and at the Prosecutor’s Office that I should file a suit against terrorists. And where are those terrorists?”
“A terrorist attack is a crime against the state, and not against me personally, as Alena Lebyadzinskaya, so I asked for aid at least to by medicines and clothes from the state, but I was inflicted bodily injuries one more time. What for? My poster just stated that I had asked the state to help me, but everywhere I was told that they cannot help me,” Alena is astonished.
She has also said that “1 litre of sunflower oil, a kilogram of sugar and a few oranges” as an aid from Minsk city executive committee.
“I do not understand: even if something had been done wrongly by me, when I came with a poster, they could have come up to me and ask to hide the poster, warn me. But not so! It was even more frightening for me than a year before, during the blast. The most awful thing is that a minute before the arrest I called my daughter and said i was going to be back at home in ten minutes. Just imagine how my family felt: right a year after the terrorist attack they could not reach me on the phone for 4 hours.”
Representatives of the Central police department refused to comment on the situation with Lebyadzinskaya’s arrest, though they confirmed they know which incident is meant. The press-service of the Main Directorate of the Interior Affairs Department under Minsk city executive committee answered that several dozen persons are arrested for different reasons every day, so “we cannot give you any specific information about this particular person.” “It seems to me that she has told you everything already,” the police spokesperson said, seriously or not. At the police department of Frunzenski district policemen promised to clarify whether any case had been opened with Lebyadzinskaya involved in it, however it was not possible to contact the press service any more. As a source in law-enforcing agencies informed, Lebyadzinskaya was detained for an unsanctioned picket. It is yet unknown whether she would be punished for that or not.