‘Young Front’ activist Artsium Dubski beaten by riot police
The Young Front activist managed to send a letter from the pre-trial detention center. In this letter, published on the Young Front website, Artsiom Dubski says how the riot police beat him and his cell mates.
“... Recently the local riot policemen have entered the cell and demanded that we rolled up sleeping berths. When we did this, the commander ordered to put all berths in the corner and allowed to roll them out 30 minutes before sleeping. What is interesting, the rules of keeping persons under investigations, which one can read in every cell, say that sleeping berths are taken away only in an isolation ward. It turns out that we were locked up. Having read the rules, my cell mates began to unroll the berths. Two minutes later we were taken out of the cell with personal things and berths. Then one by one we were searched. We were beaten with rubber truncheons very brutally... When I fell down, they continued beating me with army boots,’ Artsiom Dubski wrote.
Participant of the ‘process of 14’ Artsiom Dubski had been in custody since 13 February 2009. He was arrested when he was returning to Belarus from Ukraine where he had lived before the trial. He must stand two criminal trials. He had a trial over allegedly stolen SIM card on 3 March. The case was closed due to failure of evidence, but Artsiom wasn’t released. He is waiting for another trial under Article 415 of the Criminal Code (evasion of service the sentence in the form of restriction of freedom).
The Case of Fourteen is a criminal case under Article 342 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, instigated against participants of a peaceful protest demonstration of entrepreneurs held on 10 January 2008.
For participation in this protest the young activist Andrei Kim was sentenced to 18 months in a penal colony (he was released in August 2008). The activist of the civil campaign European Belarus” Alexander Barazenka was sentenced to one year of personal restraint without sending him to a penal colony. He was kept in remand jail since 27 October till 9 December 2008. Other participants of the Process of Fourteen – Aliaksei Bondar, Ales Charnyshou, Artsiom Dubski, Mikhail Kryvau, Mikhail Pashkevich, Ales Straltsou, Mikhail Subach, Tatsiana Tsishkevich and Pavel Vinahradau, were sentenced to two years of restriction of freedom without sending them to penitentiary institutions. Minor Maxim Dashuk got 1.5 years of restraint of liberty.
