Baranavichy: ‘Young Front’ activists are beaten on return from Dziady action

Activists of the Young Front Yury Bahdanovich and Siamion Bylinski were brutally beaten up after they returned to Baranavichy from the protest rally Dziady in Minsk.

As Yury Bahdanovich said to the website of the Young Front, policemen in mufti approached them, and asked to show documents for inspection.

‘One of our friends didn’t have a passport, so policemen wanted to take him into the police department. When I asked why, I received a strong blow on the liver. He sent me reeling, and by accident I touched another policeman by my hand,’ Yury Bahdanovich said. ‘Shouting that I am beating them, the policemen went at me with their fists’.

Siamion Bylinski started to defend his friend, as a result policemen detained the both. The names of the policemen are A. B. Zlatkus and staff sergeant V.M. Rulinski.

In the police department several reports were drawn up against the Young Front members for foul speech, hooliganism, and disobedience to police. ‘In the police department we were insulted. They promised us to break our legs if we won’t sign the untruthful reports,’ Yury Bahdanovich said. They haven’t signed the reports.

In the morning without explaining the reasons Yury Bahdanovich was released, while Siamion Bylinski was taken to the court.

‘At about 4 p.m. they started the trial’, Bylinski said. The policeman told a deceitful story about how Young Front members tried to kill policemen. The judge was a just woman, and after listening to my version of the events released me. Thus the reports are to be reconsidered, and our witnesses would be invited to the next court trial.’

The young men who had been beaten are set to lodge a complaint to the prosecutor’s office against actions of the policemen.

It is not the first case when Young Front members are beaten up in Baranavichy. A month ago, after the protest rally on 28 September against rigged results of the ‘parliamentary elections’ the unknown beat up an activist of the local branch of the Young Front who returned from Minsk.