Sadists With Shoulder Straps :: Charter'97 :: News

Doctors have made a diagnosis to a young activist Lubou Kuchynskaya, beaten up by special task policemen (former SWAT) today. She was diagnosed a hypertensic crisis. The girl was arrested and brutally beaten up by riot policemen right before the rally in memory of the disappeared leader of the Belarusian opposition, former Minister of Interior Affairs Yury Zakharanka.

“Riot policemen seized me near October Square, in the subway crossing by McDonalds restaurant. They dragged me to some yard. They started to beat me. Three riot policemen were beating me. They delivered blows on the head and on the legs. They punched me. They drew me into a bus and continued beating there. They searched me and tore the bag. They broke my mobile phone. They were humiliating me, insulting, using foul language all the time. They were beating me until I fainted and was short of breath…” Ludmila Kuchynskaya said to the Charter’97 press center.

The girl was taken to the emergency hospital in an ambulance. A cardiogram was made, and her blood pressure taken and her head x-rayed. Doctors diagnosed a hypertensic crisis. Kuchynskaya refused to be admitted to a hospital, and she was prescribed rest in bed. The girl is to stay under constant care of a physician.

Criminal actions of riot policemen must be investigated by prosecutor’s office. Human rights activists are preparing complaints. However, none of policemen had been punished for beating up policemen so far. As we have informed, last year a riot policeman hit a wife of the disappeared politician Dzmitry Zavadsky, Svyatlana Zavadskaya, on the face. The leader of the UCP Anatol Lyabedzka, a youth leader Mikita Sasim and many other participants of peaceful protests were beaten up. None of policemen has been brought to justice.

Impunity causes the situation when riot policemen have become punishers beating up their own fellow citizens cruelly. The prosecutor’s office by refusing to react to this sadism of police is among those in charge of the lawlessness.