Riot police accused of beating teachers

The Vitsebsk procuracy is looking for witnesses of the incident that happened during the closure of the Slavonic Bazaar festival last year. Three teachers allege having been groundlessly beaten by officers of the Minsk riot police who ‘secured the public order’ in Vitsebsk during the festival.

The policemen, on their part, state that the teachers are to blame: they allegedly came up and started using four-letter words. ‘They didn’t warn us, didn’t tell us to return, but just knocked us down. About eight people participated in the beating. I cried and rushed to them. They twisted my arms and put my husband on the floor. One of them sat down on him, holding his legs, while another just put a leg on his head!’, said one of the victims, whose brother and husband were beaten.

The teachers were detained and taken to the police station, where the police drew up a report for using obscene language in public. They have spent more than a year trying to prove that they were victims of the police lawlessness. By the way, one of the victims of the incident spent almost a month on the vacation leave because of fracture of a finger.

During this year the procuracy came to the conclusion that the policemen exceeded their duty powers. However, they still haven’t established the fact of the beating due to the lack of witnesses.