How Belarus authorities persecute doctor who helped COVID-19 patients, police abuse victims


Intensivist Ihar Tabolich was detained during one of women’s solidarity rallies in Victory Square in Minsk; then he was accompanying his girlfriend. The doctor spent two days in the notorious detention centre in Akrestsin Street and got a fine of 675 Belarusian rubles.



Ihar Tabolich.

‘Mood was very upbeat, no one had any doubt we are fighting for good cause’

Ihar Tabolich is 31 years old. He graduated from the Belarusian State Medical University and took part in the postgraduate training program. He was a primary care physician and the head of the department at the medical company in the military unit in the town of Maryina Horka. He has been working as an anesthesiologist since 2016. In 2019 the man got a job at clinical hospital #1 in Minsk.

Ihar and his girlfriend joined a solidarity chain on August 29. According to the doctor, taking part in peaceful protest was their deliberate decision. Moreover, he was uptight about letting his girlfriend go alone. He was standing a bit farther, about ten metres behind the chain. Just after they came, Igor was approached by a policeman.



“He did not have any insignia; he said “Come with me”. I instantly realised who he was. I did not resist and quietly followed him to a minibus. There was another man and four riot police officers inside. They did not beat us, they simply started searching our belongings, demanded we give them passcodes for our phones and threatened us with [initiating cases under] various articles – from disobedience to threats of violence and physical attacks on a police officer,” Ihar said.



Women’s solidarity march in Minsk. 28 August 2020.
Photo: ТК / belsat.eu




The detainees were brought to Pershamayski district police department. A protocol was drawn upon Tabolich for ‘participating in an unauthorised mass event’.

“I agreed with what it said only partially. The report stated that I was chanting slogans ‘Go away’, ‘Shame’ – but I did not shout any of them though. No one actually shouted anything there. It was a women’s solidarity chain and each participant was standing absolutely calmly there,” the doctor stresed.

Half an hour later, another protocol was made upon Ihar for ‘disobeying a policeman’s orders’. As he dared to express outrage, he was locked in a prison cell. He and two other men spent about four hours there.



https://redakcja.belsat.cloud/en/news/endless-night-of-torture-story-of-young-minsker-arrested-on-his-way-home/

During the evening, two more men were taken to the police department; then all of them were transported to the detention centre in Akrestsin Street.

“We were locked in a prison cell of one square metre and thought we would stay there. Later they had us leave the cell one after another. Our personal belongings were checked, they had us undressed, examined us and we were transferred to another cell. Confinement conditions were relatively fine if compared to other people’s experiences. Each prison cell had six beds, a toilet and running water. We were provided with bed linen, they gave food to us and did not really bother us. There seemed to be some library but no books were given to us even though we kept asking for them. My cellmates were interesting, educated, intelligent so we were not bored together. Each of us was in an upbeat mood, we knew that we were fighting for the good cause,” Tabolich said.







People come to prison walls to get information about his relatives and friends. Detention centre in Akrestsin Street in Minsk. 12 August 202o.
Photo: ТК / Belsat.eu




On August 31, his trial was to be held via Skype. Approximately thirty detainees were waiting in the hall. According to Tabolich, there was a kind of supervisor who kept giving orders without introducing himself.

“I’d like to point out that they all wore no identification marks; they had masks or balaclavas covering their faces, shoulder boards were flipped over, many of them were in civvies. They are afraid of being recognised. Then the ‘supervisor’ started educating us, saying that they do not beat anyone, that we are bought and paid for, etc. I could not listen that and told them everything I thought about how they tarnished their honour. He could not find any arguments against that and started threatening me with the riot police. I did not get scared, and he made me stand against the wall and kicked me. I bumped my head on the wall. I did not faint, there were no bruises. He also promised me that I would be imprisoned.

During the trial, Maksim Trusevich, a judge at Pershamayski district court, found Ihar Tabolich guilty of violating Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences and imposed a fine on him.

He also got the heaviest fine of those slapped on the persons who were being tried together with him on the same day. In addition, the reports over ‘disobedience’ were quashed for many of them, but that of Ihar was sent back for yet another revision. This is why the doctor suggests he face another trial regardless of the video of his detention which is a proof of his showing no resistance.



‘Govt is to blame for lots of COVID-19 deaths’



Ihar Tabolich.




Ihar Tabolich became known as far back as July when he gave an interview on the COVID-19 situation in Belarus. It was then that his personal protest against the authorities started, he said. Earlier, he was also deeply aware of what the Belarusian governmental system was like.

“I am a former military man, I served in the special forces in Maryina Horka. I knew perfectly well that the system is corrupt and ineffective, I knew that we were nobodies to it. And I quit.”

In his opinion, the pandemic clearly showed up the system’s flaws. The authorities ignored the novel virus and there were many more deaths hidden from the public than the official statistics says.



“All the data are absolutely inaccurate and the consequences of their inability to handle the situation will keep affecting the society a long way down the road. All over the country, doctors have no respect for their superiors and the government anymore, as they are forced to list wrong diagnoses and falsify the data.”



Фото: Таня Капитонова / «Белсат»




In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, Ihar Tabolich resigned. On the one hand, it was his protest against what was happening in the country; on the other, it was obvious that after his open criticism of the authorities it would be too dangerous to remain. His granting the interview resulted in a number of conflicts with the hospital administration. The medical director called Ihar ‘Judas’ and demanded he name the names of those who ‘bought him off’. At the end of the conversation, the boss gave a small black sack with coins to Igor as yet another symbol of his attitude towards him and left.



https://redakcja.belsat.cloud/en/news/police-beat-doctor-who-helped-police-brutality-victims/

“I did not get this gesture and called the police to inform them that there was an attempt to bribe me. An investigation team arrived, took the money and the director to the Department for Combatting Economic Crimes. The sack contained thirty roubles, and the director explained that was an analogy to the thirty pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying Jesus. After that my colleagues asked me to be careful,” Ihar said.



Motivating trial



Post-election protests in Minsk. 10 August 2020.
Photo: AB / Vot-tak.tv / Belsat.eu




Ihar Tabolich also helped treat those who were injured during the first days of protests near Pushkinskaya metro station and Minsk Hero City Stele. The doctor himself got injured.

“I witnessed with my own two eyes how many people who had no weapons on them and did not intend fight got shot at point-blank range. I saw several grenades falling down right near some girls, and then they were fired at. It seemed like their goal was to scare us by all possible means. Their actions were surprisingly excessive. They thought that the use of force would stop the protests, as it happened in 2010. But it did not – people are sick and tired of living under this regime for 26 years – that is a long period of time. A new generation has grown up; they do not want to live as a herd anymore, they are longing for changes. We need to fight and I am sure we will continue fighting. The court trial did not scare me, it encouraged me to move on.”

Ihar has no doubt such protests are legal and that people should not give up.

“Our rights are to be protected. If the government does not respect people, if they rig the election results, spit in people’s faces, all we have to do to do is to fight,” Ihar believes.

He is ready to continue asserting his rights but if worse comes to worst, he will have no choice but to leave the country.







Ihar Tabolich

“I do want to help the civil society here. Naturally, my future wife and I will keep closely following the situation and if it gets dangerous, we will have to leave. I have no doubt that the outflow of people will be huge if we do not succeed. It is now happening among doctors. Let’s take the intensive care unit where I used to work at: there is a lack of doctors. Those who remain have to work at the limit of their capacity; one person may have two full-time jobs – that is a lot. Young people are leaving. Over the past year, five doctors from our unit quit and only one joined. I know more people who are going to leave. And what will remain of the health system in Belarus [if the trend holds]? I do not have an answer. It is not uncommon that young and smart interns learn foreign languages, usually German, get two years of experience and then go abroad,” he stressed.

Ihar Tabolich says that he would be happy to stay and work in Belarus if the incumbent leadership steps down and he can feel safe in the country. On September 5, he married his girlfriend Alena.



https://redakcja.belsat.cloud/en/news/raped-with-truncheons-beaten-and-insulted-peaceful-protesters-suffered-for-their-views/



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