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How Pediatrician Got Disappointed In Police

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How Pediatrician Got Disappointed In Police
ZMITSER SERADA

Another case of police lawlessness took place in Minsk.

At 8 am on August 4 unidentified men in masks broke into the apartment of the pediatrician Zmitser Serada: without ringing at the door and giving any explanations they knocked out the doors, descended from the roof and broke the glass in the balcony door in the kitchen. Except Zmitser, his pregnant wife and little daughter were also at home at that moment.

As Zmitser Serada told to the human rights activists of HRC “Viasna”, the unidentified men broke into the apartment without giving any explanations, threw the doctor face down on the floor, twisted his arms behind his back and handcuffed him. Then one from those who had broken into the apartment said to Zmitser’s pregnant wife that they were from the police and followed her and the child to another room.

– Probably, my wife and my daughter Palinka did what they were ordered to do. I tried to turn my face to the other side, but was kicked in the face by a leg in a sneaker and was ordered not to move. After that my head was pinned to the floor with the sneaker and kicks showered on my head, body over the kidneys, back and legs. A had a lump in throat feeling and started to faint.

Then I remember that I was asking those who broke into my apartment if they came to the right address. Someone named my address and name. Those were my data. I began to ask: “Why? Why is this all happening? For murder or drugs?” I heard in response that I shouldn’t had waved with my private parts, in a more rude words, sure, – Zmitser Serada describes the events of that morning.

One of the police officers asked the detainee where he had been at three o'clock on Sunday. Zmitser Serada answered that he spent all that day fishing 80 kilometers away from Minsk. By the way, it is not difficult for the police to establish his location: not only by interviewing witnesses, but also by localizing his mobile phone from which he called on that day. They took Zmitser in special transport to the police department of Zavadski district of Minsk and continued to beat him. They kept him in the police department for several hours and then brought him to the Investigative Committee, where he was interrogated.

He was suspected of having committed a crime under part 1 of Article 339 of the Criminal Code – “intentional actions which grossly violate the public order and expressing clear disrespect for society, accompanied by violence or threat of violence or destruction or damage of another person's property or characterized by exceptional cynicism (hooliganism)”.

During the procedure of identification of suspect the victim couldn’t identificate the detained man as the same man who had committed the crime, and the witness also claimed that Zmitser didn’t look like the criminal.

However, the man remanded in custody for the night, and he was kept in the police department the whole following day too. During all that time, Zmitser Serada had no any food. In the middle of the day he started to suffer acute colicky pain and the police employees offered him paracetamol (!), but finally they called an ambulance. The doctors decided that symptoms could be caused by a two-day fasting, but found no acute pathology.

He was released only at around 4 p.m.on August 5, as the investigator had decided that “there were no more reasons for his further detention”.

After that Zmitser Serada went to the forensic physicians who found that he had mild brain concussion and bruise of the front abdominal wall.

The man is on a sick leave now. His daughter was taken to a psychiatric clinic for examination where the psychologist found that the girl was under stress. Zmitser and his wife also plan to seek psychological help, because they both are still in a state of shock and stress.

Zmitser Serada has already filed a complaint to the Main office of the Investigative Committee, the head of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate and the Prosecutor's Office. In the complaint, he asked to establish the identity and to bring to justice those who ordered to take his apartment by storm and to forcefully detain him as a suspect in a criminal case, as well as those who was beating him up in the apartment and special transport on the way to the police department.

– In addition to the physical and moral harm caused to my family and me, they also caused material damage to my property. I'm totally disappointed in our police. Nobody has even apologized to me. But I'm not going to tolerate such abuse, – Zmitser Serada said.

The lawyer Pavel Sapelka stresses that according to the law, an interior enforcement officer can use physical force, special means, weapons, military and special equipment while performing his tasks only in cases when performing of these tasks is not possible by other methods.

However, the use of physical force and the mentioned special means must be preceded by the warning of the intention to use them, expressed in the manner that is explicit and obvious for the person, against whom they are going to be applied, except for the cases when the delay in their use can create a direct danger to the lives of citizens or can cause other serious consequences.

There were no grounds for use of physical force and special means during Zmitser Serada’s arrest. He was suspected of a crime, which was not socially dangerous or violent. A few investigative actions determined he hadn’t participated in it.

Employees of the internal affairs authorities exceeded their powers, used physical force and special means to demonstrate their physical and overbearing superiority, to humiliate and intimidate Zmitser Serada, to break him down before the investigation actions started.

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