Women and children beat them: policemen and their offenders

Alyaksandr Haruta, 17, stood trial in Minsk on November 1. The teenager was walking together with his friend when he was detained for being tipsy. The policemen brought the teenagers to a police bus, put them on the floor and started beating, human rights defenders reported later. However, it was Haruta who was punished. He was returned guilty of beating... a riot policeman!

Alyaksandr Haruta. A real killing machine. The young man attacked him shouting ‘Beat cops!’, riot policeman Aleh Sharko said in court.

Sharko is no longer a policeman. It is understandable. How can you keep working if a weak teenager can beat you? Naturally, colleagues will not respect you anymore.

"If the teenager is returned guilty, we will need to write an open letter to Shunevich [Minister of Internal Affairs – Euroradio] because it will be time to disband the riot police. Policemen should not be beaten by teenagers,” blogger Anton Matolka wrote before the trial.

Whom did the 17-year-old teenager beat? Riot policemen need to pass a test of their physical strength. Their minimal height is 170 cm.

"Your height must be at least 170 cm. If it is 169 you will not be allowed to take the tests. Doctors will not let you pass.”

Candidates who served in the army are preferred. “We can recruit men who did not serve in the army on condition that they have exceptional physical strength.”

Euroradio has collected information about the other people who dared to attack Belarusian policemen.

A policemen vs. single mother Anastasiya Navoyeva

Anastasiya Navoyeva, single mother from Babruisk, stood trial for beating a policeman a year ago. Here is the video of ‘the attack’ at a bus stop:

Riot police vs. nudists at a Minsk beach

Here is the video shot in August 2015. Riot policemen are trying to detain a nudist. Two men are trying to defend her. One of the men has a broken leg and is getting about on crutches. The video shows the woman and the man on crutches falling down after a few policemen’s hits. The woman was holding her cheek all the time, witnesses said. An ambulance took her ‘defenders’ to hospital later.

The woman who was sunbathing topless was fined for hooliganism. The men were returned guilty of an administrative violation and disobedience to the police.

Driving inspectors vs. cyclist Dzmitry Palienka, 21

Minsker Dzmitry Paliyenka. Detained for participation in the action Critical Mass on April 29, 2016. Its participants demanded to let cyclists ride along the roads. The young man started a fight with them, the riving inspectors said.

Paliyenka was returned guilty of violence directed at policemen and sentenced to two years of imprisonment with a delay.

Policemen vs. journalist Ivan Shulha

Belsat journalist Ivan Shulha. Sentenced to 10 days of imprisonment for petty hooliganism in February 2010.

Shulha was drunk and attacked one of them, policemen said. However, the fact of his intoxication was not proved in court. Nevertheless, it did not help the journalist avoid imprisonment.

Riot police vs. journalist Pavel Dabravolski

Journalist Pavel Dabravolski was beaten by policemen in Minsk Frunze District Court. He was filming policemen leading Young Front members out of the court room and was beaten together with them.

The journalist was fined for disobedience to the police. Dabravolski ‘attacked from behind’, one of the policemen said in court. The witness did not explain how the journalist could attack two policemen at a time while holding a phone in his hands.

Police vs. blind man at metro station Uruchcha

Dzmitry Artsyomau, visually handicapped. He was begging at metro station Uruhcha on September 18, 2015 and did not want to leave when the police arrived. The policemen kicked him downstairs, the video shows.

Artsyomau bit two policemen, they claimed. The handicapped person was not arrested but they put him in a boarding house he was not allowed to leave without permission.

25-year-old football player Syarhei Bulynyonak vs. riot police

Player of FC Ashmyany Syarhey Bulynyonak, 23. He was beaten and detained when driving to Minsk together with other players on July 2, 2016. “One of the football players refused to get out of the car. He kicked a riot policeman in the chest a few times. Physical force was use against him,” the police wrote in their report.

"How could I beat a riot policeman when armed people were attacking us?” Bulynyonak said later. The policemen apologized to his parents and expressed their regret about the incident later, he noted.

But what do those excuses mean? The brutality of detentions was explained in one of the recent articles published in the magazine Riot Police: there can be no mistake. “You can only make a blunder and let him [the criminal –Euroradio] avoid punishment.  All the information and sanctions are verified before the moment of the arrest. Our task is arresting the suspect and not letting him get rid of the evidence. The other things will be done by investigators and the court. This is our differentiation of labour.”