Natallia Pratasevich told Belsat about her son’s appearance in the video recorded by law enforcement officials a day after Raman’s disappearance.
“I and the people close to me, who saw the video, concluded that Raman was very badly beaten. I know my son very well. He has a broken nose. I’m not a surgeon, but we zoomed in on the video a lot. The septum is displaced. You can see a black spot on it. There are also teeth knocked out if you look closely. The canine is twisted and crooked, and there’s a hole behind it. Bruises are covered with makeup. Her face is askew. His cheek is sunken.
Natallia notes that the intonation with which Raman speaks is not peculiar to him. But, according to her, she could see that the police were beating a confession out of him.
Also, Natallia Pratasevich does not exclude the possibility that the video could have been recorded not in the detention center. Raman’s sister phoned all hospitals in Minsk, but no one answered the phone. Raman’s mother also noted the cigarettes.
“I don’t know much, but my husband says he doesn’t smoke those.”
On May 24, the first video of Raman Pratasevich, a journalist detained at the Minsk airport, appeared in pro-government telegram channels. In the video, the blogger confirmed his detention and said that at the moment, he was in the detention center in Valadarski street and had no problems with his heart or other organs. At the same time, the attitude of the staff was “lawful and respectful.” Raman also added that he is “cooperating with the investigation and confesses to organizing mass riots in Minsk.”
Following the information that Raman was taken to a hospital in Minsk in critical condition, the Belarusian Interior Ministry said that the journalist was in pre-trial detention and had no health complaints.
* The editorial board of Belsat doesn’t know where and under what circumstances the video of Raman Pratasevich was recorded. The video was spread by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus after the telegram channels began to publish information that the journalist was hospitalized because of heart problems. We can neither confirm nor deny this fact. Raman’s mother told Belsat about Raman’s state of health.
