Minsk Resident Detained By Mistake Began To Fight Against Policemen

The doctor sues the IC.

On July 22nd, the Partyzanski district court of Minsk started to consider a complaint of doctor Dzmitry Serada against the refusal of the Investigative Committee to initiate a criminal case against the police officers who had detained him, as it turned out by mistake. Judge Anatol Barysionak considers the case. The court is held behind closed doors, but the operative part of the decision will be announced openly, tut.by reported citing BelaPAN.

We remind that at 8 a.m. on August 4, 2016, the riot police broke into pediatrician and pediatric trauma surgeon Dzmitry Serada's apartment in Minsk. The man woke up from the blows of battering ram in the iron door and came out into the corridor. At that time, the soldiers in black with guns in their hands broke the glass in the balcony door and entered the kitchen. The arrest, according to the man, was quite tough - and, as it turned out, by mistake.

The man was suspected of exhibitionism. He was released 24 hours later, finding him innocent, as the victim and the witness did not identify him as the criminal. Sereda himself said that on the day of committing the crime he was accused of, he and his friends were fishing 80 km away from Minsk.

Later, the Investigative Committee initiated a check-up of the police officers' actions following a complaint from his family. However, the Investigative Committee refused to initiate criminal proceedings. The investigators came to the conclusion that the decision to involve the riot policemen in the detention "was made on a reasonable basis," and the handcuffs and physical force were used "to combat possible resistance" on the part of Serada. The diagnoses (a slight closed craniocerebral injury, a soft tissue bruise to the head, a bruise to the front abdominal wall) were found to be unjustified, the injuries and abrasions registered by the conclusion of the forensic medical examination were classified as "light, not causing a short-term health disorder".

Nevertheless, the Minsk prosecutor's office cancelled the Minsk investigators' decision and initiated a criminal case against a policeman from Zavadski district police department under Part 1 of Art. 426 of the Criminal Code (Exceeding power or authority). The materials were then sent to the Investigative Committee. However, as a result of the inspection, a decision not to institute criminal proceedings "for lack of corpus delicti in the act" was again taken.

Now the Partyzanski district court of Minsk is considering Dzmitry Serada's complaint against the refusal of the Investigative Committee to initiate criminal proceedings against the policemen who detained him by mistake and beat him on July 22. The court is held behind closed doors, but the operative part of the decision will be announced openly.