Homieĺ resident complains of torture and humiliation by police

Disabled of the 2nd degree Dzianis Yauseyenka appeals the illegal actions of an employee of the Navabielicki District Police Department of Homieĺ Artsiom Siurtukou at the prosecutor's office and challenges the verdict of the Navabielicki District Court at the Homieĺ Regional Court.

The disabled man believes he was subject to torture by the police and was deprived of the right to a fair trial.

There are two versions of the circumstances of the incident: one belongs to Dzianis Yauseyenka, the other – to the policeman of the Navabielicki District Police Department of Homieĺ Artsiom Siurtukou. Both men live in the neighboring houses in one street. According to Mr. Yauseyenka, on September 26 afternoon he was walking with his small children near his house in 1 Iĺič Lane. At that time he was listening to songs by the Russian band “Krasnaya Plesen” in the headphones (the band is known for an extensive use of obscene words) and loudly sang along to his favorite band. Policeman Artsiom Siurtukou, who had a day off that day, walked out of his house with his baby in his hands, and told Yauseyenka to stop singing loudly not to disturb the baby's sleep. Yauseyenka promised not to sing. Nevertheless, the police decided to draw him to administrative punishment and told him to come to the Navabielicki District Police Department. Dzianis Yauseyenka obeyed and went with him to the DPD.

The version of the policeman Siurtukou is somewhat different. According to the report of administrative offense, drawn up by him, “September 26, 2015, at 2.30 p.m. Yauseyenka D.B., being in the state of alcoholic intoxication, spoke using rude and obscene language, shouted, didn't react to remarks, thereby violating the public order and peace of citizens and demonstrating a clear disrespect for the society."

At the office of the policeman Siurtukou in the Navabielicki DPD of Homieĺ the events developed on two contrary scenarios.

"When we came to the police station, Siurtukou started compiling a violation report. I asked to use the toilet, but he rudely answered that I could do it into my pants. I sat there for an hour, and by then I wanted to use the toilet even more. Therefore I got up. Policeman Siurtukou thought that I was going either to run away or start fighting with him. Therefore he said he was going to put my hands into handcuffs. I have a 2nd degree of disability, I am epileptic, and started explaining it to him. He answered he didn't care. He grabbed me by the right shoulder, knocked me down and kicked with his feed several times. Of course, I resisted, as if he had lost the key from the handcuffs and I had a seizure in the handcuffs, I would have died. He put the handcuffs on my hands and told me to sit on the floor in the corner. I sat down. Then I was taken to a medical examination, and 0.9 ppm of alcohol was found in my blood."

The report that was drawn up by the police officer Siurtukou presents a completely different version of the events: “Yauseyenka D.B. verbally abused Siurtukou with obscene language, deliberately humiliating his honor and dignity, he didn't obey to the legal requirement to stop shouting, spoke roughly and abusively, waved his hands, grabbed by the uniform, trying to provoke a fight.”

"If Yauseyenka's information is correct”, commented an activist of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Ales Yauseyenka, “the actions of the policeman can be qualified as torture or ill-treatment: he didn't let the detainee to the toilet, beat and handcuffed him, put him on the floor. It is a violation of Art. 25 of the Consitution which says that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. I believe that video cameras must be installed in each room at our police departments and the interrogations must be recorded on audio so that there would be no controversial issues during the subsequent court proceedings.”

The following day Dzianis Yauseyenka again went to the Navabielicki DPD to complain about the policeman's actions and got the beating registered. The case was sent to the Investigative Committee.

September 29, judge of the Navabielicki District Court D. Kazlou punished Dzianis Yauseyenka with a fine of 4.5 million rubles. The latter was found guilty under three articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses: disorderly conduct (Art. 17.1), disobedience to a lawful request of an official (Art.23.4), insulting an official in the exercise of official authority (Art.23.5 ). The court ignored the mitigating circumstances: that Dzianis Yauseyenka was a disabled and had two small children.

According to Yauseyenka, the trial itself was held in a rather strange way. He came to the Navabielicki District Court of Homieĺ, accompanied by two policemen from the Navabielicki DPD. One of them went to the judge's room and the other sat with Yauseyenka in the corridor.

"There was no trial at all”, says Dzianis Yauseyenka. “I was sitting ner the judge's room and was called to the judge only to be handed the notice that I needed to pay a fine. The judge told that I needed to pay the fine within a month and I asked him to give me an opportunity to pay it in parts, as my disability pension was just 1,700,000 rubles. Judge Kazlou refused to do it."

"Homieĺ Viasna"