Aleh Surhan: “I was lying on the floor while militiamen were kicking my head”

The beaten oppositionist told how militiamen were torturing him in the Kastrychnitski district militia department in Vitsebsk.

Three national whit-red-white flags were hung out in Vitsebsk on September 3: on the Kirov Bridge, on Freedom Square, and near the medical university on the evening September 3. Opposition activist Aleh Surhan was detained at a bus stop in front of the university by militia and accused of hanging out the flags. The oppositionist was brutally beaten up in the militia department.

“Young Belarus” activist Taras Surhan, Aleh Surhan’s brother, told in an interview to www.charter97.org about the incident in Vitsebsk on September 3.

“My brother and I were sitting on a bench at a bus stop in front of the flag,” Taras Surhan reminds. “Militia officer removed the flag. Then they drove up to us. They asked if we saw who had hung the flag and asked to show our identity documents. I had a passport, but my brother didn’t have. The senior lieutenant talked to deputy head of the Kastrychnitski district militia department Kalinouski on a radio set and Kalinouski said to take us both. The senior lieutenant said he couldn’t detain me as I had showed the documents. Then Kalinouski said to take my brother. My brother had met provocations before, so we were afraid they could put drugs or money on him. I began to call for witnesses. Another militia car drove up. My brother asked to make a list of his personal things in a report. Militia officers said they had no paper. Aleh laid on the ground and said he wouldn’t go anywhere. They caught him, handcuffed, and dragged into the car.”

Taras Surhan said his brother’s head was injured and bleeding when he came to the militia department.

“I was in the militia department 20 minutes later. Aleh’s head was injured, he was bleeding. I called an ambulance. Then appeared only after two hours,” Taras Surhan says. “They asked to talk to an officer on duty in order him to confirm the call. But the officer on duty didn’t take up the receiver. My brother had asthma. I tried to give an inhaler, but militiamen didn’t allow me. They watched my brother suffocating and laughed.”

Aleh Surhan was taken to the regional hospital of Vitsebsk at 10:00 p.m. doctors recorded the beating, injures of head and arms. After an hour, the opposition activist was guarded to the militia department again, where he spent the night. According to Aleh Surhan, the initial report on hanging out a white-red-white disappeared. But new reports appeared. Surhan was accused of being drunk, using foul language in public and insulting militia officers. Aleh Surhan was guarded to a detention facility at about 5 in the morning September 4.

www.charter97.org phoned Aleh Surhan when he was guarded to the Kastrychnitski district court of Vitsebsk. The opposition activist told about tortures by militiamen.

“I was handcuffed and pulled into a car,” Aleh Surhan tells about the yesterday’s incident. “I was lying on the floor and militiamen were kicking me. In the department, militiamen twisted my arms. Handcuffed, they hung me up on my belt on the bars. I had to stand on toes, me arms gone dead. Then they beat me head against the toilet bowl, jump on my head. There were four men beating me.”

The opposition activists didn’t stand the trial on September 4. Aleh Surhan applied for an attorney and attracting Taras Surhan, militia officers who had detained him, and deputy head of the Kastrychnitski district militia department Kalinouski as witnesses. Surhan also lodged a motion to instigate a criminal case against the militia officers who ha tortured him.

Judge of the Kastrychnitski district court of Vitsebsk Kozimava delayed the trial till September 9. The trial is to start at 3:00 p.m.