Nikita Domrachev: I Can Sleep Only While Sitting

It's a shocking story about the atrocities of chasteners.

The brother of four-time Olympic biathlon champion Darya Domracheva, architect Nikita Domrachev, was detained by Belarusian security guards in Minsk on October 11. At the time of detention, he was riding a bicycle and did not have any symbols. The ambulance took him to the hospital from the police department. He told mk.ru about the events.

- How do you feel now?

- I have a very bad headache. I can't sleep because I can't find a position to sleep. I feel pain and can sleep only while sitting.

I received first aid in the hospital. They stopped the bleeding, then stitched up the wounds and made a CT scan. I have a heavy concussion. Now I seek further medical assistance to continue recovery.

- Tell us, what happened?

- I accidentally found myself there. I was frightened by the soldiers running at me. I have never seen so many people with weapons before. I was scared and turned the other way to leave, but I just started to move when people in black masks without insignia approached me from the other side. They threw me off my bike in a second. Then they severely beat me.

- Did they take you to a paddy wagon after that?

- They put me in the minibus. Earlier such minibuses drove around the city without plates. Now they have plates, but I could not see anything, because I was covered with blood. They said that I was lucky that I wasn't in a paddy wagon, because they would have beaten me even more and "gangr*ped" me. They pronounced it in a tough, brutal form. The people who pressed me, insulted and asked me how much one paid to me, what happened to my eyes and why I was so insane. I was afraid for my life, especially knowing what happens to people after detention and that some don't leave the detention facility but are found somewhere in the forest.

I felt scared. I was shocked, handcuffed so that one hand immediately went numb. I did not feel it and felt severe pain at the same time. I asked them to call an ambulance, weaken my handcuffs and not to touch me because they laughed and used foul language.