Belarusian blogger severely beaten by police, fined for poster 'Put Lukashenka to trial!'

Belarusian police are becoming more and more aggressive, especially to those who find it difficult to defend themselves.

Blogger Viktar Nikitsenka, who collaborates with many independent media, was detained by security forces and severely beaten on October 13 in Minsk.

At 13:30 Nikitsenka came to Independence Square, to, in his own words, “let people know what he thinks about the criminal Lukashenka, who once again seized power in Belarus.” Along with him to the square came two more people. Then the blogger asked friends to take his picture on the background of the Government House with a homemade poster “Put Lukashenka to trial”, site of the Human Rights Centre Viasna reports.

Several men in civilian clothes were constantly watching, and then one of them, lokking like the police officer approached the men and asked what was going on, asked to see the notebook, which was in the hands of Nikitsenka, and show his ID.

In response, Viktar Nikitsenka asked him to show his documents, as well as to introduce himself and explain why he needed to show an ID. But the man refused to answer and walked away.

At 14:00 hours the protesters decided to leave the square. The three of them headed for the subway.

“On the stairs leading to the underpass, I was grabbed by the arm and dragged down by force, wrote the blogger on Facebook. Of course, I resisted and demanded to see their IDs … but I was dragged to the other side of the underpass, where a white minibus was already waiting.”

The man was abused, beaten, intimidated and threatened with execution.

“You did a bad job!” the detained man told policemen in the minibus and called them slaves. After that, the driver asked the blogger to remove glasses and repeatedly punched him in the face.

“During the beating, he asked me:”Am I a slave?”- giving me the opportunity to respond. I replied, striking him on his nose with my head. Then, the angry police officer clamped my head between his legs and began to beat me on the sides and back, on the kidneys,” wrote Viktar Nikitsenka.

It turned out that men in civilian clothes were KGB agents who were aggressive and took away all the blogger’s things, erased all the data from his phone and camera. Nikitsenka was forbidden to make calls in the police station, where he was held for nearly two hours.

The reason for the detention was his unwillingness to show ID to the police officer who did not want to show his ID at my request, says the blogger.

Two friends of Viktar, who went with him to the Independence Square – Ales Papok and Siarhei Talstoi – were arrested.

On the same day, October 13, the trial took place, where the Moscow rayon court of Minsk sentenced Nikitsenka to a fine of 20 basic units for unauthorized picket, 30 units for resisting arrest and for insulting the judge.

The blogger Viktar Nikitsenka cooperates with the Moscow editorial office of radio Liberty, Echo of Moscow, site Korrespondent.net.

On September 17, as reported by the media, the police beat a man in wheelchair, who was pulled from the subway near the Yakub Kolas Square station and beaten in the yard. On September 18, police officers beat the visually impaired man, dragging him on the feet off the stairs. Recently, it was reported that police beat an elderly man after cancer surgery. When the man complained to police, the Investigation Committee found no element of offense in their actions.