Aleh Surhan intends to sue against the police torturers
Aleh Surhan, recently by Vitsebsk police, solicited for bringing a criminal case against the officers who had tortured him at the police station.
On 3 September Mr. Surhan was detained at a bus stop, opposite which somebody hanged out a white-red-white flag. According to witnesses, Aleh Surhan was severely beaten, hanged up on the bars by his belt, beat with his head against the toilet bowl. The victim registered the beating at Vitsebsk city hospital #3.
According to http://news.vitebsk.cc, Kastrychnitski district court of Vitsebsk is trying the administrative case against Aleh Surhan that had been brought for insubordination to the police. Besides, Mr. Surhan is accused of having bitten a policeman’s finger.
On 4 September judge Kazimava postponed the hearings to 9 September because of Surhan’s petition for drawing his brother Taras Surhan, the police officers who detained him and the deputy head of Kastrychnitski district police department as witnesses.
In his interview to Charter’97 Taras Surhan said: ‘My brother and I were sitting on a bench at a bus stop in front of the flag. Police officers removed the flag. Then they drove up to us. They asked if we saw who had hung the flag and asked to show our identity documents. I had a passport, but my brother didn’t have. The senior lieutenant talked to deputy head of Kastrychnitski district police department Kalinouski on a radio set and Kalinouski said to take us both. The senior lieutenant said he couldn’t detain me as I had showed the documents. Then Kalinouski said to take my brother. My brother had met provocations before, so we were afraid they could put drugs or money on him. I started calling for witnesses. Another police car drove up. My brother asked to make a list of his personal things in a report. Police officers said they had no paper. Aleh laid on the ground and said he wouldn’t go anywhere. They caught him, handcuffed, and dragged into the car.’
Taras Surhan said his brother’s head was injured and bleeding when he came to the police department.
‘I was at the police department 20 minutes later. Aleh’s head was injured, he was bleeding. I called an ambulance. They appeared only two hours later. They asked to talk to an officer on duty in order him to confirm the call. But the officer on duty didn’t take up the receiver. My brother had asthma. I tried to give an inhaler, but policemen didn’t allow me. They watched my brother suffocating and laughed.’
Aleh Surhan was taken to the regional hospital of Vitsebsk at 10:00 p.m. doctors recorded the beating, injures of head and arms. After an hour, the opposition activist was guarded to the police department again, where he spent the night. According to Aleh Surhan, the initial report on hanging out a white-red-white disappeared. But new reports appeared. Surhan was accused of being drunk, using foul language in public and insulting police officers. Aleh Surhan was guarded to a detention facility at about 5 a.m. on 4 September.
