“Narodnaya Volya”: Minsk dweller found dead after interrogation in police department of Leninski district

We have seen a lot while we work in the independent newspaper. But this story is simply an outrageous one.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court Aleh Sukala and Interior Affairs Minister Anatol Kulyashou must at least resign, as these events not just cause indignation, but are terrifying. Simply terrifying!

“Narodnaya Volya” has published a letter of a family of Minsk dwellers Mikhail and Svyatlana Aksyanevich, about how their son died after detention by Minsk policemen.

“… Some person, Y.A. Hil, who lives in Minsk, when he was detained for petty thefts on numerous occasions (since August 2007), presented himself by the name of our son. Police drew up reports on attempted thefts; the detained always admitted his guilt, showed repentance, promised to pay fine in the court… and was released by police as the one who had repented. And later district courts of Minsk did not summoned our son to the court, did not pay attention to the fact that the photo of the detained and our son do not look alike, to put it mildly, quickly sentenced Alyaksei to a fine and sent a court ruling to our home address.

Because of policemen’s and court workers’ unconscientious fulfillment of their duties, our son had to prove his innocence in all courts of Minsk 8 times.

Such rulings of courts were annulled and the cases were closed after cassation appeals were considered. It is necessary to pay state duty for consideration of cassation appeals. Besides, not all courts withdrew information about violations, illegally attributed to Alyaksei, from the single database of crimes. Is it normal when an innocent person is on the database of wrongdoers?

And on March 22, 2010 in the evening, in a rush hour, our son received a trauma (a shoulder dislocation) after a clash with hooligans on October metro station. He called in aid the policeman on duty. An ambulance was called in, his dislocation corrected, but my son was not allowed to go home, though he had not been detained officially. Interrogating officers arrived; they took Alyaksei away to the police department of Leninski district in Velasipedny lane, 9. Our son was available on the mobile phone till 1 a.m. March 23, 2010. The last thin he said that he is not released for some reason, and he would be kept in the police department till next morning. From the print-out made by policemen from the Single database of criminals at 1.05 a.m. on March 23, 2010, it is clear that investigation continued in the night, as the database offered information about administrative crimes, which discredited the name of our son. These were crimes committed by another person, and with which our son had nothing to do, but they were not deleted from the police database.

I do not know what happened after that. But Alyaksei was found unconscious at 6 a.m. on the 6th floor of a residential building in Haravets Street near the police department of Leninski district. He died three days after without regaining consciousness, as a result of numerous skull cup and base of skull fractures, and grave concussions of brain lobes. Bones of parietofrontal and temporal region of skull were totally crushed.

The prosecutor’s office of Leninski district represented by the assistant prosecutor A.I. Svatko, refused to open a criminal case on the fact of our son’s death. He explained that in the following way: Alyaksei could have fallen many times themself and thus could have a closed craniocerebral injury without his clothes being smeared and thorn. Besides, no one came and confessed that he is responsible for the death of our son. However a policeman who had not told his name, told to us on the phone that our son “had been beaten by policemen”.

So please answer the question: who is to blame and what should be done?

But even a “dead alibi” does not protect our son from officials’ arbitrariness. A…ninth (!) ruling of the court of Leninski district of Minsk has been received by us. Judge M.I. Khama charges Alyaksei of a failed attempt of theft from a shop “Palesye” on May 17, 2010 and he is fined 1,050,000 Br. We answer: our son had died on March 26, 2010. Maybe Judge M. Khama could explain how Alyaksei could commit a theft from the shop while he was dead?! What kind of a “just court” it is, which fined a person who had died two month before the crime performed?

A thief steals; policemen formally establish the violation hurriedly, a court fines in a hurry. Everyone is busy, everyone is working. Only law is not working.

And we, Alyaksei’s parents, ask judges with grief and sorrow, to send their rulings to a different address in the future: Mikhanavichy cemetery, section #140.

Mikhail and Svyatlana Aksyanevich

Minsk

P.S. Alyaksand Svatko, assistant prosecutor of Leninski district, is well-known to charter97.org website. It was him who denied a journalist Natallya Radzinaa right to complain against illegal actions of policemen who hit her by a fist in the face during the search in the news office of the website on March 16. And Judge Mikhail Khama many times issued politically motivated verdicts to opposition activists.