Authorities to investigate police-related violence in ‘graffiti case’

Viachaslau Kasinerau, an activist accused in the so-called ‘graffiti case’, has been told that a criminal case was opened to investigate the injuries he suffered when brutally detained by employees of a special detachment of the Interior Ministry on August 11 this year.

He says that two to three weeks after he left hospital and his broken jaw was still in an immobilizing splint he was invited by investigator Y. Hramadskaya, which asked many detailed questioned about the circumstances of his detention.

“She was trying to force me say that maybe they accidentally injured me when the door was opened, I could somewhere slip and break my jaw on the stairs, or I could be sitting there with a broken jaw and waiting for the raid. Of course, it was different, and I said it in detail.

As it turned out, at the time of the conversation, investigators had already inspected the bus, which transported me, and there they found my blood, and they even promised to make a confrontation with the policeman who beat me. But then everything went quiet for months. And just recently it was reported that they finally opened a criminal case,” says Viachaslau Kasinerau.

However, the victim wants the charges be re-qualified, because he did not agree that he suffered less serious injuries:

“For over a month I could not eat normally, and I think that it should qualified as grave bodily injuries. I still face disability, I recently had an inflammation.”

On August 11, law enforcement officers detained five youth activists (Maksim Piakarski, Vadzim Zharomski, Viachaslau Kasinerau, Yaraslau Ulyianenkauand a citizen of the Russian Federation Pavel (last name unknown) on suspicion of involvement in three episodes: inscribing graffiti “Belarus Must Be Belarusian” and “Revolution of Consciousness: It Is Near At Hand”, as well as smearing a billboard with the image of police officers. The Investigative Committee has officially charged youth activists Maksim Piakarski and Vadzim Zharomski under Part 2, Art. 339 of the Criminal Code, “hooliganism committed by a group of persons”. The period of preliminary investigation has been extended until November 30.