Single mother trying to prove torture in police custody for sixth month

Volha Pansevich, an activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, met cover-up in law-enforcement agencies.

On April 21, 2012, a Slonim-based activist was detained by police officers near her home. She was beaten, forcefully pulled into a car and taken to a police department in Slonim, where two police reports were drawn up against her for disorderly conduct and showing resistance to police.

The activist was left in the detention facility for three days. Policemen insulted, beat and forced her to remain a stretching position, protivpytok.org reports.

Volha Pansevich has been trying to prove she was tortured for the sixth months, but all her attempts failed. While policemen were torturing the women, her minor child was at home waiting for his mother.

Slonim's district department of the Investigation Committee carried out an inquiry into actions by the policemen, but refused to initiate a criminal case. An investigator didn't even summon witnesses and only heard policemen's evidence.

Volha has applied to the court of the Slonim district.

In her complaint to the Slonim district court, the activist pointed at numerous errors in the Investigation Committee's inquiry and inconsistencies in policemen's evidence:

“According to Y. Botik, a senior officer on duty at the police department, I appeared in the police department at about 8:00 p.m. But police officers S. Zinevich and Y. Bytsko say they saw me in Khlyuoin Street at about 8:00. It is not clear how it could happen that I was in two different places at the same time. This fact shows that the inquiry was not carried out properly and accurately and the grounds on refusal to initiate a criminal case were not objective.”

Volha asks the court to cancel the decision not to open a criminal case taken by senior investigator of Slonim's district department of the Investigation Committee Valadashchyk. R. and oblige him to fix the errors.

The single mother is ready to apply to the UN Human Rights Committee to prove that she was tortured.