Belarus HR watchdogs call for release of arrestees in White Legion case after torture reports

Belarusian human rights organizations have published a joint statement calling for immediate release of all persons arrested in ‘rioting and armed group case’ after reports of torture in KGB prison.

Syarhei Kuntsevich, an activist of the Social Democratic Party and member of the opposition Belarusian National Congress, was released from prison last week.

He claims he was subject to electric torture in detention facility Nr 1 in Minsk. Four persons battered Kuntsevich and used a shocker baton to make him disclose the whereabouts of his associate and friend, former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich.

“Kuntsevich filed a request in the Investigation Committee asking to open a criminal case in connection with the commission of a crime against him. He claims that during a questioning in the KGB building, which took place in the absence of a lawyer, several persons in black uniforms and masks hit him several times, after the investigators left the interrogation room. After that, one of them three or four times used an electroshock weapon against the victim, applying it to his left leg for 30-40 seconds, which inflicted exquisite physical pain. Moreover, during his stay in the KGB pre-trial prison, Kuntsevich was held in degrading and inhumane conditions: he was forced to sleep on the floor for 14 days, sitting on a narrow board during the day; the prisoner received no medical attention. After his transfer to detention center No. 1, he was beaten by employees of the facility,” human rights defenders say.

They have urged the the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Committee to conduct an objective investigation of the torture report voiced by Siarhei Kuntsevich; to change the measure of restraint in respect of 14 arrestees and immediately release them from custody in order to avoid being subjected to torture.

About 30 persons – former members of the defunct sports and patriotic organization White Legion, state-authorized sports and military club Patriot, Young Front activists as well as people who are not associated with any organizations, landed up in jail after Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s words about ‘armed militants’ posing a threat to Belarus.

• ISIS, Maidan, coup: Belarus regime orders TV to demonize White Legion arrestees
• Lukashenka finds one more ‘armed militant’: 27 arrestees on list
• Belarus state TV shows another horror story about White Legion

Two pre-trial prisons of Minsk, the KGB prison and the Interior Ministry’s jail, continue to hold 14 people accused of ‘preparing riots’, some of them were charged with ‘establishing an illegal armed group’. According to unconfirmed information, they may be tortured and drugged.

belsat.eu