Minsk: Police Beat Aliaksandr Kazulin’s Proxies and Journalists
In the morning of 2 March Aliaksandr Kazulin, representatives of his initiative group and journalists came to the Culture Palace of Railmen in Minsk, where the so-called All-Belarusian People’s Assembly was taking place. Mr Kazulin wanted to come in and deliver a speech to the participants of this officious assembly. According to the correspondent of the Associated Press Siarhei Hryts, the police pushed him on the floor, beat and then pushed out to the street. They closed the doors of the building with journalists inside and detained them there, prohibiting videoing and making photos. According to N.Shydlouskaia, at that time the police continued beating Mr Kazulin. The notorious major Paulichenka was among the offenders. Journalists were detained till A.Kazulin was driven away to Minsk Kastrychnitski Borough Board of Internal Affairs. All in all, to the law machinery detained about 60 persons. Near Kastrychnitski BBIA where Aliaksandr Kazulin was kept, they detained some activists of his electoral headquarters and the photo correspondents Iulia Darashkevich from Nasha Niva, Vasil Fiadosenka from Reuters and Siarhei Hryts from Associated Press. The police took away their cameras and soon released. Iulia Darashkevich also said that near the BBIA persons in plain clothes shot in a car. The cameraman of Reuters Dzmitry Madorski was taken to hospital #10 of Minsk with an eye injure.
11 more activists of Kazulin’s headquarters and the corresponded of Belhazeta Dzmitry Brushko were taken to Minsk Leninski Borough Board of Internal Affairs. During the detention the police broke ribs to the activists of the headquarters Ivan Labachou and Uladzimir Seviaryn. They also injured Seviaryn’s head.
Among the detainees there were also the correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Aleh Uhlevich and the worker of Kazulin’s press-service Andrei Maksimau. Aleh Uhlevich has a serious nose injure.
The police didn’t admit to the beaten Aliaksandr Kazulin his wife and daughters, only the defence lawyer Dzmitry Harachka. An ambulance was called for him. According to Kazulin’s daughter Iulia in some time the doctors walked out, but said nothing about the state of her father’s health. They only hinted to the relatives Mr Kazulin was alright.
Meanwhile, the commandant of the special police forces Dzmitry Paulichenka, who beat Aliaksandr Kazulin, stated to Interfax information agency Kazulin insulted him, after which he decided to ‘treat him mannishly’.
Mechyslau Hryb, the chair of the initiative group of Aliaksandr Kazulin, submitted a letter to the Procurator General Piatro Miklashevich, the minister of interior Uladzimir Navumau, the chair of the Central Election Commission Lidzia Iarmoshyna, the OSCE mission in Minsk, the mission of CIS observers and the foreign embassies. There he demanded to urgently bring a criminal case on the fact of ‘bandit assault on the candidate to presidency’. Mr Hryb also urged the law machinery to ‘defend citizens from actions of uncontrolled bandit gangs’ and the international community - to react to the events that took place in Minsk on 2 March.
