28 March 2024, Thursday, 21:01
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Siarhei Kulinich Told About Ways Of KGB Jail

11
Siarhei Kulinich Told About Ways Of KGB Jail
SIARHEI KULINICH

The oppositionist has written a statement to the Prosecutor General's Office.

Activist Siarhei Kulinich, who was detained on the eve of Freedom Day and accused of preparing "mass riots", filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor's Office with a request to check the cruel and inhuman treatment in the KGB jail.

The HRC "Viasna has published some extracts from his complaint.

"I was detained brutally. On March 24, I was coming back from the apartment, where Mikalai Statkevich was staying. I went out of the store in Adzintsou Street and soon I heard the tramping, as if someone was running after me. I turned around and saw some people a meter and a half away from me. They grabbed me and punched me several times, trying to hit my stomach. Then they handcuffed me, threw a bag over my head and pushed me into the car. I remember that I was thrown on the floor in that car or in the bus, where to they dragged me later. I was in a state of shock. I felt like someone whose actions were totally controlled, with whom they could do anything.

Over time, I can conclude that they were not very interested in me. I stayed in the KGB jail for ten days, and I was questioned only on the fifth day of the arrest. And during the interrogation, I was asked questions that had nothing to do with the matter of preparing mass riots. All they wanted to do with me was just to intimidate me and break psychologically."

Siarhei Kulinich was released from the KGB jail on April 3. In early June, the criminal proceedings against him on the mass riots’ preparation were closed.

The activist considers his detention to be nothing more than a form of cruel and inhuman treatment, a humiliation of human dignity, which is prohibited by the UN Convention against Torture. First, the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Belarus does not provide for such a measure as putting a black bag on somebody’s head during detention. This fact indicates that the KGB officers have exceeded their authority. Secondly, during the detention Kulinich was not resisting or committing anything that fall under the grounds of the application of physical force and special means. Therefore, beatings and handcuffing were illegal and deprived the detainee of the right to personal immunity.

In addition to the Prosecutor General's Office, Siarhei Kulinich also appealed to the Investigative Committee with a request to compensate the damage for the detention.

Write your comment 11

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts