Minsk schooler sentenced to restriction of liberty for ‘false report’. She filed complaint about torture
Partyzanski district court found a student attending one of Minsk schools guilty of ‘making a knowingly false report about committing a crime’ (Part 2 of Article 400 of the Criminal Code), the press service of the Supreme Court informs.
Previously, the girl filed a complaint about being tortured in the notorious detention centre on Akrestsin Street.
The name of the defendant has not been reported; it is known that she was born in 2004. According to the Supreme Court, the schooler ‘deliberately appealed to the Central Office of the Investigative Committee with a report about the grave crimes committed against her, which allegedly took place in August 2020 in Minsk and in the pre-trial detention centre of Minsk City Executive Committee, i.e. her being beaten with truncheons by unidentified police officers, illegal detention and imprisonment’.
During the court hearing, the girl fully admitted her guilt, the authorities say. She was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months of restriction of liberty without being sent to a correctional facility.
On 9 August, numerous protest rallies started throughout Belarus on the back of announcing the preliminary results of the 2020 presidential election; the major demands of Belarusians were Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s resignation; holding a free and fair election; releasing political prisoners; putting an end to police violence as well as bringing to justice those involved in battering and torturing peaceful demonstrators. There are several deaths that are linked to the post-election protests. As of 19 May, 396 persons have been recognised as political prisoners by the Belarusian human rights community. According to the Amnesty International organisation, the Belarusian authorities admitted receiving some 900 complaints of abuse by police in connection with the protests, but by the end of the year not a single criminal investigation had been opened, nor had any law enforcement officer been charged with respective violations.
