Lithuanian Police Are Shocked: What Belarusians Say about Torture
- 15.02.2021, 10:29
Victims of the Belarusian security forces turn to the law enforcement agencies of the EU countries for help.
In Belarus, in the six months since the beginning of the protests, not a single criminal case has been opened on violence against demonstrators, even though, according to official data, the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus received about 1,800 such statements. Meanwhile, some victims took the opportunity to investigate crimes within the framework of universal jurisdiction and appealed to the law enforcement agencies of the EU countries, Deutsche Welle writes.
Will Lithuania help the injured Belarusians?
Lithuania became the first country to launch an investigation against the Belarusian security forces within the framework of universal jurisdiction. "Indeed, an investigation is underway, and at the moment (as of February 9, 2021 - ed.), four people have been recognized as victims, but their number may change," said Elena Martinoniene, head of the communications department of the General Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania. The representative of the department refrained from other comments.
"Belarusian Maksim Kharoshyn went through torture and served time for simply distributing flowers at peaceful protests. He arrived in Vilnius, we met, and we decided to help him submit documents to the prosecutor's office. We want people to know what to do, where to go in such cases," said Tsikhanouskaya's adviser Aliaksandr Dabravolski.
According to him, Lithuania had similar cases against those who were hiding from the investigation after the events of 1991 in Vilnius. "In the absence of the accused, evidence was collected, sentences were passed," says Dabravolski. "In Lithuania, there is a clear description of the situation in the Criminal Code. There is also political will - law enforcement agencies are conducting investigations, despite possible international conflicts."
Belarusians complain about torture
On February 7, the first application was submitted to the Central Office for Combating Organized Crime in the Czech Republic. As the lawyer Aliaksei Krenke told Radio Svaboda, the Belarusian accused the AMAP in Hrodna of torture in August 2020, and specific people have been identified.
Documents are being prepared for Polish law enforcement agencies. "I think that, in the next two months, there will be several dozen similar statements, investigations will begin in other countries. It should be understood that most states do not have such legal practice, but this is provided for in their Criminal Codes, as well as the Convention against Torture, implemented in national legislation," says Aliaksandr Dabravolski. He is confident that the investigation will identify many of the crimes' perpetrators and those who gave the orders. And since torture is not a political issue, no one can stop the search for suspects through Interpol: "The result, of course, should be an investigation and trials of these people in Belarus, but even if this does not happen yet, they will not be able to go to any another country without the risk of being arrested."
Lithuanian police shocked by the stories of Belarusians?
Among those who filed a complaint about the torture by the Belarusian security officials is a citizen of Lithuania of Belarusian origin Maryja Matusevich: "My testimony was recorded for six hours. It seemed to me that the Lithuanian police were shocked by what they heard."
Matusevich was detained in Minsk on the night of August 11. "As soon as the doors of the minibus closed, AMAP officers began to beat us. They didn't touch me until they remembered that I was a citizen of Lithuania. Then they brought me to the Frunzenski police department, where the whole gym was covered in urine, blood, and feces. They had a torture chamber in a shooting range, there 6-7 guys were turned on and beaten for 15-30 minutes, the girls were taken to the shooting range for interrogation, so that we broke down," Matusevich recalls.
After the police department, already in the middle of the day, she was sent to the CIP on Akrestsina Street (the Center for the Isolation of Offenses in Akrestsina Lane in Minsk - ed.), where, until late in the evening, she was kept first on the street, then in the exercise yard, and in a four-bed cell for several hours with about 60 people. She was released on the night of August 13, without a protocol - there was no trial.
At the end of October, Matusevich left for Lithuania. She notes that there were no summons for more than two months; only in December she received a letter stating that her residence permit in Belarus would be canceled. It also turned out that Matusevich was fined 20 basic units (about 180 euros) and banned from entering the country for five years. The girl collects money for a lawyer to prove the illegality of this decision.