"Police Said He "Died", But When We Came To Collect Him From Morgue - "Oh, That's The One Who Was Murdered?"

Journalists have talked to Dzmitry Uskhopau's sister and friend.

An hour before New Year, the police detained Dzmitry Uskhopau, a 27-year-old resident of Rechytsa, at a bus stop. A few hours later he died in hospital. In the morning of January 2, the Homel edition of "Flagstaff" reported about the death of the young man. The relatives are sure that the Rechytsa citizen was killed. "Mediazone" talked to Uskhopau's relatives and friends.

At the bus stop

On December 31, around 11 p.m., 27-year-old Rechytsa citizen Dzmitry Uskhopau was standing with a friend at the Detski Mir bus stop.

"He was on his way to my place to celebrate the New Year, he was standing at the stop with a friend. "I'll be right up," he called. They were drinking champagne and eating mandarin," Uskhopau's mother Alena told "Nasha Niva".

Dzmitry's friend Aliaksandr confirmed to "Mediazone" that the two of them were indeed "already drunk". Soon, Aliaksandr says, two policemen came to the bus stop - Uskhopau attracted their attention because he was shouting loudly, talking to himself. He was in a bad mood on New Year's Eve - he was upset after the recent death of his acquaintance, he explains.

When the policemen approached Uskhopau, he "started resisting a little", trying to free himself, he continued. Then they called for back-up and a few minutes later a paddy wagon with five more policemen arrived at the bus stop, he said. While two of them were holding Aliaksandr back, the five newcomers pushed Uskhopau into the car and drove him away.

"And that's it, they started: you have been drinking. Twisted arms behind the back. And he said: I'm going to my mother, let me out, do not detain me...". - Nasha Niva quoted the mother of the deceased as saying.

After that, Aliaksandr, according to him, went to celebrate the New Year at his relatives' house. Uskhopau died a few hours after the detention in hospital.

An eyewitness who contacted Uskhopau's relatives claims that 15-30 minutes before he was detained he saw a police car at the nearby Tsentralny Shop stop, which is about 400 meters from "Detski Mir". He noticed that the police were "rounding up drunk people" and suggested that "the law enforcers were wandering around the bus stops to carry out the plan", says the report, a screenshot of which is at the disposal of the journalists.

The police station, the hospital and the morgue

- He was either interrogated and beaten there or hit in the head once or fired upon with a pneumatic gun, I do not know for sure. He fell unconscious at the police station, they poured water on him and tried to resuscitate him. They brought him back with his torso half-naked and his jacket on top. His hair, body, and clothes were all wet, and they are still wet in the morgue," relatives of the deceased told "Flagstaff".

According to his relatives, Uskhopau was brought to the department of the central regional hospital when he was already in a coma.

- According to the therapist, they tried to resuscitate him with adrenaline and heart massage, but the time had been lost. They took him to the morgue and in the morning of January 1 they conducted an urgent autopsy on the basis of a false order of the investigator. No one was allowed into the morgue. The head of the forensic medical examination department arrived and the investigator was summoned. They showed us the body," "Flagstaff" quoted the relatives as saying. When they saw the body, the pathologists had already had time to conduct "an autopsy of the cranial and abdominal cavity".

The clinical death was registered at the hospital at 1.20am. Uskhopau's sister Sviatlana told "Mediazone" that at first the relatives "were not allowed into the morgue and were not given any information".

- It was a weekend yesterday. In fact, they were not officially working. And they unofficially wanted to give us his body so we could bury it. Either we take it or they will not show us anything, - says Sviatlana. - That is, since yesterday at night, and until this afternoon we had to bury him, they were interested in that. They wanted me to pay for the morgue services by United Payment and Information Space and they would give me the body without any receipt, by the UPIS cheque.

In order to get to the morgue, the relatives demanded identification, saying that they did not believe Dzmitry was dead, says Sviatlana.

"The head of the Rechytsa forensic examination department was summoned, the investigator was summoned at my request. They dressed us in their costumes and brought us in. They showed us everything, I was recording it, they did not interfere," says the sister of the deceased.

According to her, her brother's clothes were "sopping wet", his shirt was torn, and there were visible bruises and abrasions on his body.

"The bruises on his wrists - obviously from the bracelets, from the handcuffs. Some bruising on the knees. And an abrasion above his left eyebrow, not an abrasion, but a round wound. About a centimeter and a half in diameter. And an entirely blue back above the waist. Blue shoulders," she said, describing the injuries she had noticed.

According to her, forensic experts at the morgue said nothing about marks on Uskhopau's body.

"No. They said to wait 30 days. You won't get our conclusion sooner than in 30 days," she reports the conversation with the specialists. "So we didn't take [the body]. They were really shocked. We said we would think about what to do next".

Now Sviatlana is preparing statements, including an appeal to the Investigative Committee.

"And everybody knows everything everywhere - in Homel, everywhere. No measures are taken, no investigation is initiated," she complains.

"Tortured like Jesus Christ"

Uskhopau's mother is sure that her son was killed by police officers.

"You can write that. They killed him - the police killed him. I am the widow of an "Afghan soldier", write it all down! And I gave birth to my son with a policeman. My son was tortured like Jesus Christ, only he is 28 years old... Let them take me along with my son and put me in the grave next to him," she told "Nasha Niva".

Uskhopau's sister Sviatlana explains: she and Dzmitry are half-brother and half-sister; her father, who served in Afghanistan, shot himself at the age of 29 in front of his mother and her brother's father Aliaksandr is a former investigator who has worked for about 15 or 20 years in the police. Dzmitry, according to his sister, "was a good boy".

"He played soccer. At the Minsk school of the Olympic reserve, "Dynama-Minsk." Then there was that economic crisis, they returned to Rechytsa. He served in the army, came back. Since 2016 he has been working at "Horgaz", says Sviatlana.

His friend Aliaksandr, who witnessed his detention, also speaks positively about Uskhopau.

"He was a nice guy, we had been friends for a long time, we went to school together, we played soccer together. He had a good job, he worked in Horgaz, he used to walk around, look for leaks, check these gas pipes," says the friend of the deceased Rechytsa resident.

"We've been friends with Dzima for 16 years, we played soccer together, and sports in general. He knew how to be a friend. He was like a brother to me! And I am sure that he didn't use drugs. The last time I called him was at 10:46 p.m., he sounded drunk, and said he was standing at a bus stop with a friend of ours. The next morning I learned of his death, and it happened that it was us, friends, who informed the relatives. I saw his body in the morgue, and there are no words to describe it. A completely beaten up man, arms, legs, back - all bruised, a bloody abrasion above the left temple. I'm sure that exceeding of authorities was committed," another friend of the deceased, Aliaksei, told "Mediazone".

According to another Uskhopau acquaintance Mikita, law enforcers were hinting to his relatives that he had accidentally been poisoned by drugs; a similar version was put forward in the evening of January 2 by the anonymous authors of "Yellow Leaks." "This animal ate 2 grams of mephedrone and kicked the bucket."

"Their version is that he had drugs with him and swallowed them and it was an overdose. What are they left to say? They won't say that yes, we beat him up so badly that he died," says Mikita.

Now, according to friends and relatives, the police are trying to put pressure on Uskhopau's mother: they threaten to search her house.

Uskhopau's father Aliaksandr has given only one short comment to the press so far.

"At the police station they told us he was "dead", but when we came to take him to the morgue, they said, "Oh, he is the one who was killed?" he told "Nasha Niva".