News on the topic: torture
14.09.2020 “We will shoot you and you will never be found.” Survivor stories
18-year-old Uladzimir Pahartsau was detained at about 6 pm on August 10 when he was returning home and got off a trolleybus near the Frunzienskaja metro station in Minsk. Two riot policemen approached him and said they wanted to check his ID. Uladzimir says that he was not beaten so hard compared to other detainees, because he was chosen to give an interview to a state TV channel about the “coordinators of the protests.”
11.09.2020 “People were screaming every night.” Survivor stories
A Minsk resident was detained on August 9 and left the Center for the Confinement of Offenders on the morning of August 12. All this time he, like the other detainees, was deprived of food. Forty people were held in a six-men cell, and riot police insulted and beat people at night.
07.09.2020 “They kicked me in the head with their police boots.” Survivor stories
Dzmitry Mishakouski was detained in the Maskoŭski district of Minsk, near the Malinaŭka metro station at about 5 pm on August 12. "The riot police were chasing someone. I turned up by chance, they put me in a bus or in a police van, I don't remember which. They took my phone away at once, broke it, asked for the password, I do not understand on what grounds."
04.09.2020 47 victims complain to UN Committee against Torture
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee have appealed to the UN Committee against Torture on behalf of 47 victims of police-related violence, urging the Committee to investigate the systematic use of torture in Belarus in early August 2020.
03.09.2020 "Officers abused me all the time because I’m black." Survivor stories
Hleb was detained on August 11 near the shopping center “Skala”. He says that the riot policemen detained him when he simply walked down the street with headphones on his head.
02.09.2020 UN human rights experts: Belarus must stop torturing protesters and prevent enforced disappearances
UN human rights experts* called on Belarus to stop torturing detainees and bring to justice police officers who reportedly have been humiliating and beating protesters in their custody with impunity.
01.09.2020 KGB tortures political prisoners held on rioting charges
Aliaksandr Frantskevich, an anarchist facing “rioting” charges, was tortured after his arrest by the KGB on August 13, according to his former cellmate.
31.08.2020 “So you are for Tsikhanouskaya?” Survivor stories
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) launched a campaign to document cases of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of protesters on August 9-13. Some testimonies of people who survived torture and violence will be published on our website as evidence of crimes committed by security forces.
27.08.2020 “Now we’ll show you how to s..t your pants." Survivor stories
On August 11, Dzianis Selivankin was approached by two police officers at the intersection of Pieramožcaŭ Avenue and Mieĺnikajte Street. What they saw in Dzianis’s Telegram enraged them.
26.08.2020 NGOs call on UN Human Rights Council to convene extraordinary session on Belarus crisis
The UN Human Rights Council must urgently convene a special session to address the human rights crisis in Belarus, where authorities have launched a full-scale crackdown following disputed presidential elections, Amnesty International and 15 other international and Belarusian NGOs said today in an open letter.
24.08.2020 HRDs request UN intervention in Belarus torture reports
The Human Rights Center “Viasna”, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have written to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to express their grave concern and to call upon intervention in relation to the violent crackdown against peaceful protesters in the aftermath of the presidential elections held on 9 August 2020 in Belarus.
24.08.2020 “We were trampled in the police bus.” Survivor stories
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) launched a campaign to document cases of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of protesters on August 9-13. Some testimonies of people who survived torture and violence will be published on our website as evidence of crimes committed by security forces.
20.08.2020 10 points on torture and ill-treatment reports
After thousands peaceful protesters were detained and hundreds were subjected to inhuman treatment on August 9 and in the following days, the Human Rights Center "Viasna" together with the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) began to collect testimonies of victims and document them.
19.08.2020 OSCE/ODIHR alarmed by increasing threats to human rights in Belarus following presidential election
Following the large-scale arrests of peaceful protestors in Belarus together with disturbing reports of violent physical abuse, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) calls for the immediate release of all those who have been unlawfully detained and a prompt and impartial investigation into alleged human rights abuses.
19.08.2020 44 protesters still in detention, 13 missing, one more reported dead
44 people detained during the post-election protests remain in custody, after they were sentenced to short terms of administrative detention, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
