Raman Pratasevich: They hit me in kidneys and wanted password for VKontakte

A moderator was let to go only because he is minor.

Youth activist Raman Pratasevich told charter97.org how he had been detained.

“I was heading to the city centre at about noon. I left home and saw a 'tail'. I tried to get rid of them and they seemed to have fallen behind. In a yard of Uruchcha district two men in civvies attacked me and pulled into a bus. I spent little time there and was soon ordered to get into a Volga car to secret service officers. KGB officers took me to a police department, where Alyaksandr Ioskin, the chief of Minsk public security police, was waiting for me,” the activist says.

“Two KGB officers took me to an office. A few policemen joined us. They said they 'know everything', added my friends had betrayed me and ordered to tell them passwords for an account on VKontakte social networking website. I said them I was not a administrator, I only represent the initiative to hold a free concert of Lyapis Trubetskoy band in Minsk. But they shouted at me, delivered blows in the kidneys and liver. They threatened to accuse me of small thefts. I was just repeating that I didn't know anything. It lasted for 4 hours. Finally, they took me to another office and left me alone for some time. They then told me to take my jacket and get out,” Raman Pratasevich said.

The activist is confident arrests and deleting a group from the website prove that the youth is right.

“They won nothing by deleting our group. It is only a group on the Internet, but people have ideas in their mind. It again proved we are on the right track and chose the right direction,” Raman Pratesevich thinks.

The activist is under 18 years old, so he cannot be punished with administrative arrest under Belarusian laws.

We remind there were mass arrests among moderators of pro-opposition group son VKontakte social networking website. The KGB hacked biggest communities on VKontakte: “We're fed up with Lukashenka” with over 37,000 members and “Only SHOS” [Let him die] with more than 15,000 members.

According to preliminary information, Pavel Eutyakheeu, Andrei Tkachou and other 2 or 3 persons were detained by police. One of group's moderators, Syarhei Byaspaly, told charter97.org police raided a flat, where he is officially registered. The activist was not arrested, because he lives in another place.