Minsk citizen may face life imprisonment or death penalty for alleged attempt to murder policeman in August
A 45-year-old Minsk resident Alyaksandr Trotski is accused of driving his car over the leg of a traffic policeman on August 12. These actions were qualified by the investigation as attempted murder of a police officer, reports spring96.org.
In the evening of August 12, armed men stopped Alyaksandr’s car near the Stela monument, and when he refused to get out of the car, they broke the windows, took him out of the car and severely beat him.
“They broke the windows in the car during the arrest, so they took my husband out of the car and beat him up. I don’t know what happened next. At night I was contacted by the medical staff of the 5th hospital and was told that Alyaksandr was admitted with a craniocerebral injury and deafness and was badly beaten,” Alyaksandr’s wife told TUT.by in September.
This is what Alyaksandr looked like after his detention. Photo was provided to TUT.BY by a readerThe man spent three weeks in the 5th clinical hospital. During this time, no family members were allowed into Alyaksandr’s room. He was handcuffed to the bed and guarded by the police. On September 3, Alyaksandr was transferred from the hospital to pre-trial detention center, where he remains today. He was taken into custody in a criminal case for violence against a policeman (Article 364 of the Criminal Code). But before referring the case to prosecutors, investigators reclassified the charges to a more severe one – attempted murder of a police officer (article 14, article 362 of the Criminal Code).
The criminal case against the citizen of Minsk will be heard soon by Minsk City Court. Article 362 of the Criminal Code provides punishment in the form of imprisonment for ten to twenty-five years, or life imprisonment, or death penalty. According to part 2 of article 14 of the Criminal Code, responsibility for attempted crime falls under the same article of the Code as for the committed crime.
The case of an injured traffic police officer was reported in August by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to Interior Ministry spokesperson Volha Chamadanava, “at about 20:00 on the intersection of Melnikaite street and Peramozhtsau Avenue in Minsk, a 45-year-old man driving a Skoda ran over a traffic policeman. The driver tried to flee the scene, but was soon detained. The traffic policemen used service weapons to detain the vehicle.
