Investigation Committee refuse inquiry into Brest journalist's beating

The Investigation Committee has found no reason to open a criminal case over the beating of Dzynais Maruk, editor-in-chef of Brest-based Real Brest online news outlet, BAJ press service reports.

The journalist made an obscene hand gesture at a man in plain clothes at a a protest against the social parasites tax last spring, Euroradio reported earlier.  The man turned out to be an undercover cop. Maruk was received a fine of 2 base amounts.

The police summoned Maruk ‘for interrogation’ several times after he had published his report about the protest in Brest. The editor came to the police office on March 28 in connection with another case and was detained.

Policemen of Lenin District Department of the Interior were hitting his head against the wall, kept throwing him on the floor, were trying to open his mouth with a spoon to retrieve the memory stick he had hidden there.

Maruk documented his injuries and wanted to punish the policemen for beating him. The Investigation Committee spent three months considering this case and finally replied that there was no reason for starting a criminal case.

“They have replied that the policeman had acted according to the law and the security cameras installed in Lenin District Department of the Interior did not contain any record of the beating,” the journalist said. The investigators were very much interested in the results of his medical examination, Maruk noted. They were inclined to reckon that the man had injured himself and had given false evidence. However, no criminal case against Maruk was open either.