Belarusian got five years in penal colony by mistake

Leanid Tarasenka spent 14 months in places of detention trying to prove his innocence.

The man managed to gain his full acquittal. The state must pay money compensation to Leanid Tarasenka. The prosecutors have turned their attention to the militia officers, who instigated the criminal case and the people, who gave wrong evidence, “Respublika” newspaper reports. Despite the “happy end”, the state does not hurry to pay for imprisonment of the not guilty Belarusian.

Tarasenka’s life became a hell in 2003, when a criminal case had unexpectedly been instigated against him. He was accused of hitting a pedestrian near Baraulyany (the Minsk region). In real fact, the “victim” stroke at Taresenka’s car fender and said he would pay for repair.

The hooligan got acetabular fracture as a result of the blow and was taken to hospital. But instead of compensation for the broken car, a criminal case was opened against Tarasenka. He was accused of “hooliganism” and “infliction of serious bodily injury”.

On May 12, 2004, the court of the Minsk district and town of Zaslaul found Tarasenka guilty and sentenced him to five years in a medium security penal colony.

“I was handcuffed, they took away my necktie, laces, belt and guarded me to a prison in Valadarski Street,” Leanid Tarasenka recollects. “In prison, I appealed against the sentence, but my complaint disappeared, it wasn’t considered.”

Tarasenka’s hair became grey in prison and his health deteriorated considerably.

“I have grey hair, numerous diseases. Most of my teeth have fallen out, I have false teeth now. I was a healthy man before imprisonment, I went jogging, did chin-ups. I told a prison physician I had headache. He answered: “The head is a bone, a bone can’t ache”.

After Tarasenka had been transferred to the penal colony, he began to write letters to all possible institutions. After the General Prosecutor’s Office got interested in his case, the Supreme Court overturned the accusation of “hooliganism” and then the other accusations. The case was remanded for a new trial. It took 14 months to free Tarasenka from charges.

The state appointed 11-million-ruble compensation for 14 months in the colony.

“I have calculated the moral damage, the minimum,” Leanid Tarasenka says. “First if all, this is ruined health. Another important thing is that my elderly mother and I had sold a flat in the Vitsebsk district to buy a flat in Minsk before the case was instigated. The money were depreciated when I was in prison. We have nowhere to live in, we have to rent a flat. When I calculated that, I found out the state must pay minimum 200mn rubles of compensation. But they are going to pay only 11 million rubles.”