”In the district police department they forced us to stand with hands against the wall and legs shoulder-width apart”

Eight participants of the rally against death penalty were detained in Minsk yesterday.

Among them - a teen girl who was illegally forced to leave finger prints, a mother of a little child who wasn’t allowed to pick him up from the kindergarten, and others.

On 16 March, people came to the Kastrychnitskaya subway station in Minsk to leave flowers under the memorial board to the victims of the terrorist act of 11 April 2011, and to demand the abolition of death penalty. At least eight of them were detained; the police illegally took fingerprints of a teen girl, didn’t allow a woman to pick up her son from the kindergarten, and detained two more girls and four young men.

Young mom Alena Pashchenia was detained with her friend Aliaksei Raniou: ”We left the flowers under the memorial board and were interviewed by journalists. Then we went back to the subway where three people in civilian clothes came to us, to check our documents they said. They were concerned with the white-red-white ribbons I had attached to my bag. Then they took our documents and for one hour didn’t allow us to leave. And I had to pick up my son from the kindergarten before 7 p.m. since nobody else could pick him up. We were not allowed to make telephone calls. Then we left the subway in pairs from the opposite exit by the Trade Unions House and were taken to the police station of the Tsantralny district in a police bus. I asked for a call since my son is in the kindergarten and nobody knew where I was. Their reply was really rude,” the woman told charter97.org.

”At the police station, there were already four guys standing with their hands against the wall and legs shoulder-width apart,” Alena continues. “We were told to stand in the same way. Then we were called one by one to the office where they emptied our pockets, searched us, took our belongings and wrote down our personal data. Then we had to go back to the corridor and stand in the same pose. None was allowed to talk. They took fingerprints and made photographs. I was humiliated; they told me “you idiot, stay home with your child, keep away from something you don’t understand”. They told us that they should leave us to the parents of the victims, that we protect those who are guilty. A man in civilian clothes came and shouted at me. He said that if I’m taken to the police station once again I’ll be fired and will probably never get a job again. My arms got numb. When I left the station it was 20:50.”

Ganna Karetskaya who was also detained told us that her friend who is under the age had been forced to leave fingerprints. “Fifteen minutes before the rally we left the flowers and lit candles. When we went down to the underground crossing a man in civilian clothes and a radio followed us and we heard the order “take them”. Then we were searched with a metal detector in a separate room. In about one hour we left the subway in pairs from another exit and taken to the Tsantralny police department. They took everyone’s fingerprints and made photographs. They even took fingerprints from my friend who is under the age which they knew. We were allowed to leave one by one after more than three hours.”

According to the two detained men, they were going from the restaurant ”Pechki-lavochki” when they saw people with flowers. “We asked what was going on, and they told us it was to commemorate the tragedy. So we decided to buy some flowers and leave them there, too. Then we went down to the subway where we were detained.”

Another detained girl who wanted to remain anonymous told us that she and her friend were walking with flowers to a mutual acquaintance. “And suddenly three policemen detain us and ask questions about the flowers. My friend speaks only in Belarusian, so they told him “use a normal language”. He started to protest, I was surprised, too. What was the problem? They took us to a police station where they asked if we have friends from the opposition, if we are the opposition ourselves, why we had flowers with us. By the way, they took the roses and threw them in a trash can. We were allowed to leave after the interrogations.”