Detainees from the jail at Akrescina started being released
14 August 2020, 01:13 | Ekaterina Panteleeva / Katerina Borisevich, TUT.BY
The release of people arrested at the protest rallies from the detention center (DC) at Akrescina began at about 22.30 on 13 August. The relatives and friends waiting for them say that about 30 people were set free in the first half an hour. People continue to be released. TUT.BY journalists asked those who were coming out about the conditions under which they were kept.
Despite the late hour, there were a lot of people standing around the DC waiting for their loved ones. Volunteer drivers keep coming, offering a ride to those leaving the centre.
Please mind that it can be physically hard and painful to watch the video below. The women describe the horrible conditions and situations they observed and experienced during several days of detention.
The first person we meet on the way out is Nikolai. He’s from Bobruisk and has been living in Minsk for four years. He refuses to be photographed. He says he was detained on 9 August behind the Stele (the monument and square in Minsk where the protests started on the election day).
– I was standing at a crossroads, trying to calm the provocateur down. There were provocateurs pushing the crowd on shields and water cannons, […] when I pushed away a drunk who wanted to throw a bottle, I was caught. And then: police truncheons, truncheons, truncheons – and I’m suddenly in a police truck.
Nicholai says he was “the luckiest of all” at Akrescina. He was immediately put in a cell, many others spent several days and nights in the yard under the open sky.
– First, I got into a cell with 24 people, then I was transferred to a cell with 46 people, although the cell was designed for six – the young man describes the environment in which he was held. – The next day, the guards mockingly asked, “Who wants to take a walk outside, get some fresh air?”. And then added whispering: “For the night.” I said, “Are you guys crazy, you are only wearing shirts and you’ll go out at night?” That’s what they did to change those who were outside in the exercise area with those who were in the cell.
– There was not enough room?
– I guess so.
We were fed, says Nikolai, on the second day – we were given “half a loaf of bread for 20 people”. The water was both hot and cold so that we could rinse.
– Were you beaten?
– I wasn’t, but a lot of people have been beaten, -answers Nikolai. – We had a quiet cell, no one who was very angry. At first, someone tried to push some buttons, but when we heard how hard people were being beaten outside, we did nothing and stayed quiet in our cell.
According to Nikolai, “the policemen themselves don’t beat up people,” OMON (riot police) does.
– OMON… It’s just… Tonight I spent the night outside and heard a man being beaten and forced to scream: “I love OMON”.
– Why did you spend the night outside?
– I was to be taken to Zhodino (another detention center near Minsk). It turned out that my papers were lost as well as of 48 other people. Three hundred people were taken to Zhodino, two more cars left there empty because they couldn’t find the documentation for people.
– Did you get a fine?
– I don’t know what will happen and what will be incriminated to me.
Below is a video that contains stories about the experience of men and women leaving DC. It is beyond comprehension.
“Don’t worry, he is OK, he is not beaten up.”
– Don’t clap! – people scream when another detainee comes out of the isolation ward.
You mustn’t clap, because there, behind the high fence, as the crowd says, when they hear the applause, people will stop being released. That is why everybody stands with the hope that the gate will open, and their dear ones will be released.
– Look! Did you see this person? – several women rush to a man and show pictures of husbands, brothers on their phones.
– This one? Yes. Don’t worry, he’s ok, not beaten, – the man answers.
– And when did you see him? Try to remember, please, it’s very important – a woman starts to cry.
– Today or yesterday,” he says uncertainly because there is no “time” in the isolation ward. All things are taken away from people, and they are grateful to the volunteers, relatives, who shout loudly at Akrescina what time is it, so they have at least some opportunity to navigate.
– Have you been beaten? – asks a woman, who’s waiting with her son for her husband.
– Yeah, just a little bit. I was screaming: “Kill me”, – our interlocutor does not want to say his name, he says, the general asked not to talk about it. But he shows his blue crippled finger. It is impossible to see the traces of beating at a glance: according to those who were at Akrescina, they were beaten on the legs, back, buttocks. These body parts are blue and black.
Ambulances are constantly approaching the gates, and those in need of medical care are being taken to the hospital.
– Egorava Tatsiana, – the car slows down near the volunteer, and the driver spells out the names of those who are hospitalized. Many people are simply not on the list, but this is immediately corrected.
It is impossible to drive up to Akrescina: there are dozens of cars lined up here, relatives, friends of the detainees, and volunteers.
– Who needs a ride? Anyone to Surganava street? – someone in the crowd says.
Those who came out from the DC look confused, they are released without their belongings, phones, wallets: all things remain in the isolation ward. They are immediately given water, hot tea, food and wrapped in a warm blanket. Women just cry; men just leave without words. They have bruises and hematomas under their clothes.
“You don’t get any medical attention, we will throw a grenade at you and it’s over.”
Source: reader Igor / TUT.BY
It is mostly women who are released after 11 p.m. Among them is Anastasia, a doctor from the emergency team. She says they detained her on the night of August 12. She and her colleagues were helping the victims after work, and on their way back, their car was stopped. The girl was wearing a white coat at that moment. Today she was given back a mask, a band-aid, and peroxide, which she had with her.
– The Special Forces stopped our car, threw us out, put the guns to our heads, that’s all – they brought us here – briefly tells the woman about her detention.
– Fifty people, the medic continues, were in a cell designed for four people. It’s not just that we couldn’t sleep, at some nights we stood up because we weren’t able to sit,” she said. – There was no air to breathe.
For the first 24 hours, she goes on, they were standing in the courtyard for a walk. They weren’t fed, they weren’t given water. The first serving of water, the woman said, was given in 15 hours, it was “demanded with scandal and hysterics. For the second day, they brought bread and porridge”.
– The guards were walking around mocking us, saying, “There will be no medical help for you, we’ll throw a grenade at you, and it’ll all be over.”
– Were you beaten up?
– I wasn’t, but some girls were beaten up there. They were beaten up by staff on the ground floor who are receiving detainees here. It’s not clear who are the guards.
– What happened to the men?
– We heard that every night men were beaten up so much they just howled. Poor men and boys just howled. They were forced to sing the Belarusian anthem and they were beaten up. That’s what we heard from the windows every night. The blood was freezing in our veins from what we heard every night.
– How many nights were you sentenced to?
– Ten nights, but today, some unknown people magically came and said that it was not clear what was going on here [… ], they came, they called us all, they had a conversation with us, they gave us papers to acknowledge what we were detained for, and they said, “Go home.”
The Deputy Minister: “There was no abuse.”
At 1.20 a.m., Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Alexander Barsukou, appeared near the DC. He talked to the photographers and quickly went to his black Jeep, not stopping near those who gathered there. Journalists asked how many detainees would be released today.
– “All of them,” – he said on the go. And he added: “There was no bullying or abuse.”
Within one and a half hours we counted about 10 ambulances arriving at Akrescina.
We would like to remind you that during the post-election protests, more than 6,700 people were detained, many were beaten, more than 250 were hospitalized, and two people died.
Photos: Olga Shukailo / Lesha Sudnikov
